game over
by Aureillia
Summary: a sinster plot reveals itself, and it is something none of them were prepared for; the game has just begun... - eventual ash&misty
1. - Prologue -

**Disclaimer ~ I do not in any way, shape, or form own Pokemon, nor do I have anything to do with the franchise. All of that amazing world belongs to Satoshi Tajiri. Anything written here is purely for entertainment purposes.**

* * *

_**Full Summary ~ **_A deadly secret. A lust for power. An old tragedy hidden for decades. An insatiable desire for revenge. While an oblivious Ash storms his way through the Kalos League, a sinister plot begins to unfold, and it's something none of them were prepared for. As old lies are brought to the surface, they discover that the truth about the past may just be far more dangerous than destructive forces working to tear them apart. The clock is ticking, and they are running out of time. The game has just begun.

* * *

_"You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else."_

**_Game Over_**

_~ Prologue ~_

The road was silent, and clear. It's only occupant being a lone blue sedan, the disgruntled female inside setting her tired, oceanic eyes steady on the building that was approaching closer every second.

Pulling up onto the small patch reserved for herself only, the girl parked the vehicle. She wasted no time in shoving her door open, relishing in the feeling of stretching her aching muscles. Taking a deep breath to relax herself, the girl sighed contently as the cool night air coursed through her body.

That was the third Gym Leader meeting this month, and to be perfectly honest, she was quite sick of them. Brushing back a lock of stray red hair which had escaped a pony tail that had been neat and tidy mere hours ago, the girl pressed the lock button on her car keys, and started up the pathway towards a building with a large Dewgong on the front of it.

She fished around for the keys to the Cerulean City Gym, grumbling about the unreasonable demands that the League had presented this time. At first, it hadn't been so bad. But now, the amount of paperwork was overwhelming and ridiculous.

Not to mention the nerve that they had to consider cutting each Gym Leaders' pay was utterly ludicrous.

Eventually finding the object of her desires, the girl all but threw the door open and felt around for a light switch. "What?" she mumbled, flipping the switch back and forth with no effect. "You have _got_ to be kidding me."

Groaning in annoyance, the red haired Gym Leader carefully stepped inside and squinted, doing her best to find any indication as to what was going on without the use of a light. Unable to find anything out of the ordinary, she frowned, wondering what could have possibly caused her power to go out. Daisy, Violet and Lily were all away in Fuschia City on a modelling shoot, so there was a little to no chance that she could count on them for an explanation.

Even if they _were_ here, the chances of them being any source of help was extremely slim.

"May? Drew? Are you home?" she called out, taking a few steps forward. "Hello...? Ow! What the…?"

Looking down, the girl scrutinized the cause for the throbbing in her leg. After a few moments of allowing her eyes to adjust, she discovered that she had so wittingly run into the coffee table. A glimpse of white caught her gaze, and she bent down to see a small, square note on the edge of said table. Snatching the object, her aqua eyes narrowed, barely being able to make out the words that read;

_**Misty,**_

_**Seeing as you're going to a meeting tonight and won't get back until late, we thought that we'd go out to Aquaria Towers for dinner. We probably won't get back until after you do, so if there's anything you need, you know my number.**_

_**Love, May xoxo**_

"Of course. The one night they go out and the power goes out with them," she sighed, pushing back her bangs.

Letting out a huff of air, the red-haired Gym Leader began to think of when exactly the cut could have occurred. It was fine during the day, and before she left for the meeting. Not to mention if the power had of gone off before May and Drew had left for the evening, May surely would have written about it on the note.

So the power had gone off after both they and herself had left.

Considering her choices carefully, she decided that the only useful option she had was to go back outside and attempt to locate the power box. After the struggle of making it to the door without running into anything else, she marched outside, thanking Mew for the moonlight. It took all of seven minutes to locate the power box, and the Gym Leader couldn't say that she was too happy with the results. She had lifted the lid, only to find that all of the cords had been cut.

"Must have been a disgruntled challenger who lost," the girl scoffed. "Stupid newbie Trainers. They just never know when to quit."

Tossing the lid aside in frustration, she made her way back to the Sedan and after several moments, managed to locate the flashlight kept in the glove box. Locking the vehicle once again, the red head stalked back up to the house, this time locking the front door behind her. Flipping the switch, the flashlight flickered for a few moments before letting out a steady stream of light across the living room. Seeing that nothing had been tampered with, the girl started for the kitchen, finding it a much easier task with the aid of the flashlight.

Reaching her destination in a matter of moments, the Gym Leader reached out one un-manicured hand towards the kettle. It was then that she realized that you needed the gas, or in her case, electricity to boil a cup of tea.

"Of all nights to happen," she groaned, smacking the palm which wasn't holding her flashlight on the bench in annoyance.

_Creak._

The girl snapped her head around, gazing around in an attempt to find the source of the sound. Unable to spot anything, she shook it off as her imagination and turned back to the kettle, frowning at it.

_Creak._

Okay, she _definitely _heard something that time. Spinning around on the heel of her red trainers, the girl instinctively reached for the red and white sphere attached to the blue belt on her shorts. A throaty chuckle emanated from the doorway, and her aqua eyes widened as the shadow of a man came into her line of vision.

"I would advise that you didn't make this any more complicated than it has to be, Miss Waterflower. Please, remove your hand from your belt," the man instructed gruffly, keeping his head bowed and arms crossed.

"W-what are you doing here? How did y-you get into my Gym? W-who a-are you?" Misty stammered, her hand only tightening around the Pokéball that contained Staryu.

He only chuckled again, lifting his head to reveal a pair of gleaming, eyes and a few tufts of amethyst coloured hair sticking out of the black cap fitted neatly on his head. The man grinned, "None of those questions are of your concern at this point. Now, I think it's time you come with me," he replied calmly, uncrossing his arms and reaching into his own pocket.

Misty frowned, a flash of fury flickering through her cerulean eyes as she eyed the now visible print on his shirt. "And just what makes you think that I'll go anywhere with you? What do you want?"

He snarled, his lips curling as the mauve haired man bitterly replied, "I think you know perfectly well what it is that I want, Gym Leader,"

She simply smirked, "Then I think you know that I won't be giving it up so easily," Misty said back. "Staryu, go!"

Misty released her oldest Pokémon, watching with renowned confidence now that she knew who she was up against. To her surprise, he only laughed and pulled his hand of his pocket.

"Very well, I always did like a challenge. Have it your way then," he replied, pulling his hand close to his face and speaking into a small device, "Now."

* * *

"I'm surprised that you can still walk after the amount you ate, tonight," a boy with chartreuse hair joked, throwing a smirk at the brunette walking alongside him.

"For your information, Grasshead, I ate a perfectly reasonable amount. The manager didn't kick us out this time, did he?" she replied, rolling her eyes.

"Which was quite shocking, considering half the food in the kitchen has now vanished. One more place that we can never go back to," Drew jibed playfully.

The sapphire eyed brunette pouted, before replying, "It was only three bottles of coke, eleven appetizers, five mains, and seven chocolate mousses!"

"Oh, no. How could that possibly be considered going over the limit?" he remarked sarcastically.

"It's not!" the brunette insisted, finally knocking on the double glass doors in front of them. "Anyway, that waiter was so rude! What kind of business do they think they're going to make if they criticize the way their customers are eating their meals?"

"Inhaling their meals, you mean."

May let out a huff, sticking her nose in the air. "Oh, please. At least the waiter didn't mistake my freakishly unnatural green hair for a pot plant and try to move me half way through the night," she snapped back, reaching into her purse and fishing around for the keys.

"Hey, my hair is _not_ freakishly unnatural. It is a unique feature that my adoring fans happen to find incredibly charming and sexy," the chartreuse haired boy replied back with a shrug, giving her a wink for added effect.

May snorted, bringing the key up to the door handle. "Yeah, right. Whatever you think, Cabbagebr- huh?"

The brunette's eyes widened in surprise as the door creaked open by the pressure of the key, rather than her having to unlock it. Drew raised an eyebrow, wondering why in Mew's name Misty would have left the Gym unlocked.

"Do you think she's home already?" May guessed, peering into the house but unable to see anything.

"She must have been. Why else would the door be open?" Drew replied uncertainly. "Can you see anything?"

She shook her head, "It's too dark. Besides, your big head is in the way of any moonlight."

Drew rolled his eyes, "Pfft, if anyone has the big head around here, it's you, Airhead."

"Have you got a flashlight or something?" May asked, ignoring his jab.

"Yes, June. I carry around a random flashlight for cases such as these," he deadpanned.

She pouted. "I was just asking," May pointed out, reaching into her purse once more.

"How you manage to find anything in that endless void is beyond me," the boy remarked, shaking his head as he leant against the doorframe.

She shrugged. "Perks of being a woman, I suppose," the brunette replied, pulling her hand back out again to reveal a shiny and rectangular red object. "We can use the light from our phones."

Drew laughed, pulling out his own forest green phone from his pocket, grinning as he spoke, "Well, what do ya know. That airhead of yours can be used for something useful after all.

May was about to snap back at him, when she caught gaze of inside the house. Gasping, she almost dropped her phone in horror as the light shone throughout the room, illuminating everything that had been too dark to notice before.

"Oh my gosh!"

"What's wr- what the hell?" the boy yelled out in shock, his mouth agape as his gaze swept over the various broken objects that had been scattered across Misty's living room.

He pushed passed May, scanning his phone over the once spotless carpet. Misty's coffee table had been flipped, whatever plates and paperwork that had been residing there now in bits and pieces all over the floor. A vase had been smashed, bits of dirt smudged into the floor, and there were scuff marks along the walls and across any other surface.

No matter what direction you turned to, something had been defaced or broken.

"What the _hell_ happened here?" Drew repeated, not believing the scene before him.

"Where's Misty? What about her Pokémon?" May voiced in fearfully. Surely if Misty had been in some sort of trouble her Pokémon would have rushed to her rescue?

"Go check the pool area. See if you can find anything," he instructed, already making his way to the kitchen area. "And May? Be careful."

The brunette nodded, heading off in the direction of where all the Cerulean Sisters' famous water ballets were held. Drew shone the phone around, looking for any sign of Misty. Not finding anything, he continued towards the kitchen.

Upon reaching said room, he discovered that it wasn't in much of a better shape than the living room; Misty's dining table had been reduced to bits of splintered wood, various assortments of cutlery and cookware were strewn across the tiles, and Drew could only guess that the melted pile of metal was what used to be his friends' kettle.

A brown, star-shaped figure spread in a corner caught Drew's eye, and he let out a gasp as he identified the thing as Misty's Staryu. He rushed over, frantically searching for any sign that the Pokémon was alright. A very faint, red gleam emanating from the gem implanted in the centre of the Pokemon's body gave an indication that it was okay, but Drew could see that Staryu would probably need medical attention as soon as possible.

"Drew!" May cried out as she burst into the kitchen, looking extremely disheveled and her eyes wide with fear. "All of the Pokémon are unconscious! There were traces of some glittery powder, but I- is that Staryu?" The brunette gran over, instantly crouching down by Drew's side to look over at Misty's eldest Pokémon.

"It's still alive, but probably barely," Drew told her. "We need to get it help."

"Where's Misty?" the brunette whispered. Drew didn't answer.

"Drew...if this is the state of her Pokémon, imagine what kind of danger she may be in!" May wailed.

"May-"

"How can you be so calm about this?" she screeched, unable to hold herself together anymore. "Misty's missing, her Gym is in shambles, and her Pokémon ar-!"

"May! I need you to listen to me," Drew shouted, cutting her off and making the brunette flinch, her phone crashing to the floor as she lost hold of it.

He grabbed her shoulders, and looked right into her terror filled eyes. "We cannot panic, okay? This situation is messed up, but it's not going to help Misty_ or_ her Pokémon if we sit here moping. I need you to go back outside and call Officer Jenny. Do you understand?"

May nodded slowly, and shakily bent down to pick up the glittering device. Drew ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath, contemplating what to do next. His thoughts were interrupted, however, as the girl next to him let out an ear-piercing shriek. He whirled back around to face her, his forest green eyes the only indication of the fear he was trying so hard to conceal.

"May? What is it? What's wrong?" Drew demanded, seeing the terror in his companions' eyes. She didn't say a word, only lifted one shaky hand to her gaping mouth in shock.

"May? May!" Drew repeated in a more serious tone. The brunette only burst into tears, her shaking now uncontrollable as the endless sobs wracked through her body.

He acted on impulse, and was by her side with his arms around her before he could even blink. "May," the boy began in a much gentler tone, rubbing her shoulders in little circles in an attempt to soothe the girl. "What is it?"

Again, his girlfriend didn't respond. May's wails had lessened considerably, and her shakes were becoming slightly less violent. Instead, the brunette clinging to his torso lifted a trembling arm toward the object that had inflicted the horror which radiated from her body. Drew frowned, and his gaze travelled to where her still shaky finger was pointing. For a moment, his expression remained confused.

And that was when he saw it.

The chartreuse haired boys' eyes widened as he took in a small, square paper sheet that he hadn't noticed earlier. But it wasn't the sheet itself that was the cause of fright in the young couple. It was the familiar print that he knew all too well, standing out like a cruel, relentless joke that had him now fearing for Misty's life.

Keeping one arm wrapped firmly around the weeping girl, Drew fumbled around for his phone, punching in the numbers furiously. It was silent for a few moments, before finally connecting.

One ring...two rings...three...four.

With each identical ring raising his nerves higher, the boy bit his lip in an attempt to keep his cool.

"_Hello?"_

"Thank Arceus," he whispered, noticing the brief flicker of relief that passed across May's face.

"No, nothing is okay," Drew snapped into the device as the person on the other end made a rude remark, his formally calm composure gone entirely. "What do you mean you don't have the time? Yes! No...well, we don't know. Look, I know you said you were busy, but this is important. There's something I have to tell you...it's about Misty."

_To be continued..._

* * *

**Just putting it out there now, this story will be Pokeshipping. Not until the very end, obviously, as Misty is kinda preoccupied, but it will be hinted at throughout the text and ultimately prevail. Other ships will be present as well, most notably Contestshipping. These will forumlate over time, but I won't say anything else so that it doesn't spoil who ends up with who. This story will also contain violence and mentions of death. Most of it is near the end, and this honestly isn't as dark as it sounds. In fact, it's not really dark at all... More dramatic.**

**A massive thank you to ShinyDragonair2 and CookiesNCreamness for giving me enough inspiration to get off mah lazzeh butt and write something. Without you I definitely wouldn't have started writing again...not for a VERY long time, anyway. ****Also, the two of them also practically planned out half of this story. so a mega amount of credit deserves to go to them for that, too. Once we start what we call "Rambling Sessions", there is just no stopping us XD**

**So...what'd ya think? I know it definitely wasn't my best work, but I certainly wasn't expecting a masterpiece after months without writing. **

**Please, Read &amp; Review~!**

**~ Aureillia**


	2. - Initiation & Interrogation -

**Wow, I definitely wasn't expecting so much positive feedback on just the Prologue, you guys are awesome! So, by order of your review, I would like to thank: ShinyDragonair2, schoolmouse33, Pure Gamer, Hero in the shadows1, , Misty Ketchum97, jessicuhxoo, Ready To Flyxxx, jayfeather12345 and UniqueElla for their words of encouragement.**

* * *

_"People with good intentions make promises. People with good characters keep them."_

_**Game Over**_

_Chapter One ~ Initiation &amp; Interrogation_

"Pikachu, Thunder!" Ash commanded, determination flickering through his russet eyes.

"Ka!" the electric-mouse Pokemon cried, in conformation, already charging up electricity through itself as he rushed towards a boulder.

"Pika…" he growled, his body aglow with coursing energy. Pikachu lept into the air, electricity radiating from all around it. "Chuuuuuuuu!"

With a final blast, the deadly bolt erupted from the Pokemon's body. The blasting energy struck its target with perfect precision, the impact causing it to explode and send shrapnel in every direction.

"Wow! Did you see that, Clemont? Ash is really getting stronger," a girl with honey blonde hair remarked, excitedly. Said boy, Clemont, nodded his head in agreement as he observed the current happenings taking place in front of them.

"Indeed. But let's not forget that it's really Pikachu doing most of the work," he pointed out, his mouth shifting upwards in amusement at the awed expression on his companions face.

"Go, Ash!" Serena cheered, ignoring her male friends' words.

"Females," he muttered, before turning to the last of their little group. "What about you, Bonnie? What do you think of all this?"

Bonnie, the youngest of the trio and Clemont's baby sister, grinned at the two. "I think it's awesome! Pikachu is really improving. Did you_ see_ how much damage that attack inflicted on that rock?"

"That I did. Their bond is incredible, Pikachu not only fights for the battle, but he puts in every ounce of effort into it for his Trainer. It really is amazing," he said back, shifting his gaze back to where Ash was congratulating his first Pokemon.

"I can't believe how close those two are," Serena said softly, a longing expression overtaking her face. Clemont gave a knowing look towards Bonnie, who only smiled in response. The two were very much aware of their female friend's affections towards the other member in their group. To bad said member was too oblivious to notice it.

"It must almost be time for lunch. What do you say about heading back to the Pokecenter for a bite to eat?" Clemont piped up, attempting to avoid any girl talk that could possibly take place. Serena would deny her feelings, for sure, and his sister would be adamant about getting her to come clean.

That was definitely one scenario he was more than happy to miss out on.

"Sounds great to me!" Bonnie replied, cheerfully.

"Sure, I am a little hungry," the older girl agreed. "Ash!"

Ash looked over to them at the sound of his name, a grin making it's way onto his features as he did so. "Hey, guys!" he shouted back, his Pikachu waving a tiny paw in their direction.

"We're thinking of heading back to get something to eat, you wanna join us?" Serena asked, eagerly, her smile brightening as the boy in question began jogging over to where they were standing.

"No sweat, I think we're about due for a break. What about you, buddy?" Ash questioned, turning to the electric type which had scurried onto his shoulder Pikachu's face immediately lit up at the prospect of receiving it's favourite food; ketchup.

"Ka! Pi, chuchu kachu, Pikapi!" the little rodent squealed in delight, his Trainer laughing in response.

"Let's get going, then! I think that he's due to arrive soon, anyway."

"For the last time, Bonnie, I am not interested in having a wife!"

"But Clemont," the younger girl whined. "She's perfect for you! Look, she even has an electric type." The older boy merely turned bright red at his sister's' suggestion, choosing to avoid answering by stuffing his mouth with fries.

Serena giggled at her friends' antics, choosing instead to gaze over at the object of her affections.

Not a good idea.

Cutlery long since abandoned, Ash was currently slurping up as much ramen as his mouth could hold at speeds that should have been impossible for a human to accomplish.

"So, Ash," Clemont began, not noticing said boys' eating habits and desperate to change the topic. "Tell us more about this friend of yours. When is he flying in?"

"Mmph?" the raven haired boy sounded, looking over at his friend. Bowl in hand and cheeks full of food, it was obvious he hadn't heard a word they had said.

"Your friend," Serena supplied.

In one gulp, he swallowed the truckload of ramen before putting his bowl down. "Which one?" Ash asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Gah!" Clemont cried out, throwing his head back against the chair. "The one who is coming to visit for the Tournament!"

"Oh, him! I don't know, he's coming to watch the Tournament," Ash replied, finally realizing who they were talking about. Bonnie stared at the boy blankly, while Clemont's face held a disbelieving expression. Serena, on the other hand, was resisting the urge to fling her one of Bonnie's chopsticks at him.

Honestly, their friend could be such an idiot at times.

"...I give up," Clemont finally spoke, shoving more fries into his mouth before he totally lost it. Serena sighed, leaning back in her own chair. She stared at Ash, her aqua eyes surveying him hopelessly. Sometimes she wondered what she saw in that boy.

Ash, who remained completely oblivious to his friends' actions, shrugged, and went back to inhaling every last bit of his meal. Pikachu wasn't any better, as the yellow mouse was too absorbed in it's ketchup bottle to pay any attention to the people surrounding him.

"What do you think he'll be like?" Bonnie piped up, looking over at her older brother and Serena. Ash, she had decided, was a lost cause for any form of conversation.

"Ash's friend? I have no idea, to be honest," Serena replied, looking thoughtful.

"We haven't really heard much about him, other than the fact that him and Ash are pretty close friends," Clemont interjected. "Didn't he say they're basically like brothers?"

At this, the two females turned pale. Brothers? One Ash was hard enough to handle. Two of them? Serena shuddered. She didn't even want to imagine the struggle.

"Well, I, for one, think that he must be pretty mature to handle Ash," the boy voiced, his words causing them to breathe out sighs of relief.

A chuckle suddenly emitted from behind them, and the three turned around to see a tall, squinty eyed brunet gazing down at Ash.

"Some things never change," he remarked. "I see your eating habits are just the same, huh, Ash?"

* * *

Upon hearing the all too familiar voice, the raven haired male immediately looked up to where his long-time friend was currently grinning.

"Brock!" Ash shouted, a grin overtaking his own features.

"Hey, Ash," the older male greeted, moving so that he was able to ruffle the Trainer's hair. "It's been a while."

"You can say that again," Ash agreed, laughing at his friend's actions.

"Pika!"

Brock laughed as the little ball of yellow suddenly jumped onto his shoulder,"Hey, Pikachu! I missed you, too." Ash smiled as Pikachu let out another squeal, clearly happy to see one of his closest friends after so long.

"So," Brock began, shifting his gaze toward the other members at the table while giving the Pokemon a scratch behind his ear. "I take it these are your travelling companions for Kalos?" Ash nodded, while the other three looked up at him timidly.

The older male chuckled at their responses, before turning to Ash once more and giving him a nudge, "You can introduce us at any time now, ya know," he said.

"Oh, right!" Ash shouted, mentally face palming at his forgetfulness. "Guys, meet Brock; my second travelling companion and one of my best friends!" he announced.

"I think they gathered that much," said male muttered, sighing.

Bonnie giggled, deciding that she liked him. "Hi, I'm Bonnie!" she piped up, introducing herself. Seeing that Serena and Clemont weren't about to say anything anytime soon, she rolled her eyes. "And these two are Serena and Clemont, he's my big brother."

Serena gave Brock a small smile and waved as she was introduced, while Clemont simply nodded his head in greeting

Brock leaned down to Ash's level, before whispering, "Not a chatty bunch, huh?"

"Nah, they're usually pretty good with strangers. Don't know what came over them," the younger boy replied, puzzled at his friend's reactions.

"Wouldn't know it," Brock said under his breath, Pikachu nodding in agreement from his shoulder.

"Hey, it's been awhile since we've caught up, do you guys mind if Brock and I go for a walk?" Ash questioned, turning back to his Kalos companions. The three shook their heads, not saying a word.

"Great! We'll be back in a bit," the younger boy stated, standing up. "Try not to get in any trouble while we're gone, okay?"

Once again, the three simply nodded their heads in acknowledgement.

'_Huh, wonder what's with them,' _Ash mentally pondered, as he began walking away from the table.

"It was nice meeting you all," Brock said politely, before turning away and walking with Ash in another direction.

"Pi!" Pikachu shouted, waving at them.

"...did we just get ditched?"

* * *

"Man, I am so pumped for the Tournament!" Ash cried, shooting a fist into the air.

"Kachu!" Pikachu squealed in agreement, having returned to it's usual location on his masters' shoulder.

Brock chuckled, glad to see that his adoptive younger brother hadn't changed a bit. "Still as determined as ever, I see. So, you're sure about this one?"

"Are you kidding? I am definitely going to win, this time," Ash stated determinedly. The older male gave him a fond smile, remembering all the times when Ash would boast about his Pokemon and chances of winning. It seemed like only yesterday, yet a lifetime ago. They had both come a long way since those days, but at heart, they were still the same.

The two walked in constant chatter, both reminiscing about the 'good old days'. Brock told him about how all of the others had grown up and what they were doing, which eventually led to his work at Professor Oak's lab. From there, he went on to explain the current position he held at the Pokecentre, and his plans to open up his own Pokemon Doctor Office in Cerulean. At the mention of Cerulean, Ash's smile faded, and the atmosphere turned tense.

"And...Misty?" he asked, quietly, not making eye contact with his friend.

"Misty? What about her?" Brock questioned back, secretly relieved that Ash had finally brought up the one friend neither of them had mentioned.

"Just...I don't know," Ash admitted. "How is she?"

Brock sighed, not sure how to go about this. Misty was a touchy subject, in Ash's case, albeit how close the two were. Sure, he had caught up with Misty several times over the years. In fact, ever since Daisy had started dating Tracy, the two had seen more of each other than ever. With Tracy being Professor Oak's apprentice, and Brock needing the experience to become a Pokemon Doctor, Misty had often been sent on errands down to the PokeLab for Daisy. Not to mention that fact that she'd been down there a whole lot more, as of late.

For what reason, Brock didn't know. He had brought it up once, but the girl hadn't said anything. All he knew was that it had nothing to do with Tracy, but he didn't push it. Ever since these occurrences, however, he'd been talking to Misty less and less.

That didn't mean that they didn't go out for lunch every once in a while, though.

"As far as I can tell, she's actually doing really well for herself," Brock told him, not missing the proud look that crossed his friend's face.

"So, she's...happy?"

At this, Brock looked surprised. Happy? "Sure, I guess. Why wouldn't she be?"

Ash looked down at the ground, kicking a pebble. From his shoulder, Pikachu had gone still, sensing the tenseness in the air. "No reason. Just curious," he replied, keeping his voice at a low level.

"Misty's fine, Ash. Over the past few years, she's really built up the Gym's reputation. She's a whole lot stronger than she used to be," Brock said, smiling a little at the thought. "Although, I'm sure she'd be a lot happier if you went to visit once in a while,"

The younger boy didn't say anything. He continued shuffling his feet against the ground, refusing to make eye contact.

"We see each other a lot, especially considering the amount of time that she's at the lab," Brock continued, missing the look of surprise that crossed his friend's face. "But she's been pretty busy, lately. We haven't spoken in a while."

At this, Ash looked up in confusion. "You mean because of her status as Gym Leader? I know she's busy and all, but she's always made time for friends' in the past."

"Funny you should put it that way," Brock said, looking directly at the boy.

"Huh?"

"Ash...how many times have you been back to Kanto since Misty left?" the Pewter native asked, his voice taking on a more serious tone.

"Uh, let's see...about three or four. Why?" Ash questioned back curiously, wondering what his friend was getting at.

"I see. And out of those times, how many have you gone to visit her?"

Ash remained silent, his gaze dropping to the ground once more. "Oh."

"Ash…she misses you, you know."

"I know," he said. "I miss her, too."

"Then why didn't you ever visit her? Why _don't_ you go visit her?" Brock questioned, not understanding why he would just ignore his other best friend like that.

"I couldn't," he replied in a low voice.

"What do you mean you couldn't? She was right there, Ash. Every time you came back, she'd hope you would come and see her. You would stay for what, a day, maybe two? Everytime you left, she just…" Brock trailed off.

Ash sighed, his eyes fixing on the horizon. "I couldn't, I...can't."

The older male shook his head. "You're not making any sense."

"Brock, I just...I can't see her, again. Not yet."

"You don't want to see her?"

"What? Of course I want to see her!" Ash snapped, clenching his fists.

"Pikapi!" the little mouse scolded, jumping down from it's trainer.

"Sorry, Pikachu," the boy apologized, running a hand through his ebony locks.

Brock sighed. "You're going to have to elaborate, Ash, because I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm pretty sure that whatever reason you have for pushing her out of your life is hurting her more than it's hurting you."

"Whenever I saw her-"

"-which was about three times," Brock interjected.

"Exactly, and all of those times, how much closer had I come to fulfilling my dream? What had I done to achieve anything? I was the same person, believing the same things. I wasn't any closer to becoming a Pokemon Master. In her eyes, I was just the same kid she left behind."

"What are you getting at?"

"Misty's always been getting stronger, right from the moment she left. She's a Gym Leader, Brock. I'm just a Trainer with dreams. After all these years, she's made something of herself, and what have I got to show for it? Nothing. Right now, I'm just a failure!" Ash rushed out, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

"A failure?" Brock repeated, surprised. "Ash, you're a lot of things. But believe me, a failure is not one of them."

The younger boy sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I just wanted to have something to show for it, Brock."

"Ash, Misty is your best friend. She'll accept you no matter what or who you are," Brock pointed out.

"I know, and that just makes it worse. I just...the next time I see her, I want to be someone. I want to have accomplished my dream. I made a promise to myself, Brock, and I'm not going to break it," Ash stated determinedly.

Brock remained silent, simply staring at the boy. After a moment, he finally spoke, "Don't you think that when you finally made that dream a reality, she'd want to be here to witness it? Wouldn't you_ want _her to be here to see it?"

"Of course I- oh...um, well," Ash stumbled, turning a slight shade of pink.

Brock sighed. "You didn't think that far ahead, did you?" he asked, staring at his friend with a blank expression._ 'Good thing I did. You'll see her again, Ash. Sooner than you think.'_

"Maybe…"

"Just...promise me something," Brock began, wondering just how dense Ash could possibly be.

"Depends on what I have to promise," Ash said back, unsure of what the older male was getting at.

"After this, go see her. No matter if you win the League or not. When you go back to Kanto, go visit her. She'll appreciate it, trust me."

"I don't have to promise that," Ash replied.

At this, Brock frowned. "What do-

"-there's no point in promising. I've already made up my mind," he continued.

The brunet raised an eyebrow in confusion, not understanding what Ash meant.

"I'll win this one, Brock. I have to."

* * *

The sound of screeching tires emanated through the clearing, a bright yellow taxi swerving to a halt out the front the Cerulean City Gym. A cab door was flung open immediately, and three extremely disheveled women tumbled out, the last one flinging a wad of cash at the driver.

"What the_ hell _happened here?" the first one screeched.

"Where's our like, sister?" the second one shouted.

"Why have the police, like, sealed off our Gym?" the third one hollered.

From his seat outside the now cleared off building, Drew's eyes widened at the terror that was sure to be inflicted upon him. "Save me," he whispered, desperately, to May, who shrank back further in her own seat. The two gulped, watching in utter terror as the trio got closer.

"At least we were together," she whispered back, accepting their fate.

"Drew Hayden, answer me!" a blonde screamed, her face contorted into a furious expression.

"Hello to you, too, Daisy," he said, sarcastically. "I already told you. She-"

"What do you mean she's been _kidnapped_?" Daisy yelled, cutting him off and shoving a perfectly manicured nail in his face.

"We we-

"How could you, like, let something like this happen?" Lily demanded, cutting him off. Drew sighed, rubbing his temples in frustration. He had already told them everything he knew at least three times over the phone, and that was bad enough. Never in his wildest dreams had he pictured the trio of raging banshees before him to be such a nightmare.

Clearly, his imagination was about to get an update.

"Please," May interjected, speaking as calmly as she could in an attempt to soothe the girls. "Calm down. We don-

"Calm down?" Lily repeated, almost hissing the words. "Our baby sister is like, _missing, _and you expect us to calm down?"

"And where exactly were, like,_ you_ when all of this was happening?" Violet demanded.

"Ladies!" a voice suddenly resonated, and the group turned turned to see Officer Jenny marching towards them. "Is there a problem, here?"

Daisy eyed the woman in disbelief. "Problem? _Is there a problem?_ Yes, there's a freaking problem! My little sister has been taken, kidnapped by Mew knows who, and nobody is doing anything about it!"

"Yeah!" Lily echoed, placing her hands on her hips. "Do you know, like, how much we had to sacrifice just by, like, coming here?"

"The modelling industry doesn't, like, just pause, you know!" Violet continued, glaring at the officer. "Now, we've like, lost our places in the shoot."

"Not to like, mention, I broke a nail!" Lily moaned, holding up said atrocity.

Officer Jenny stared at the three, stunned, before regaining her composure.

"I'm very sorry if there has been any inconvenience, but I assure you that we are trying our best to locate your sister. We're doing everything in our power to do so," she told them.

"Well, that obviously isn't like, good enough!"

"I'm going to have to ask you to keep your voice down, ma'am," Officer Jenny requested, noticing the attention they were drawing.

"She'll raise her voice if she wants!" Daisy shouted back. "We have every right to do so. Our sister is missing, and you're supposed to find her!"

"I understand that you must be feeling quite upset right now, but please, you need to try and keep your composure. You're attracting a crowd, and the last thing we need is for the public to panic," the officer tried once more.

The blonde simply scoffed. "To hell with the public, I couldn't care less. Maybe if you'd focus more on your job than what the public has to do with this, which is nothing, you might actually get something done and find my sister!"

Officer Jenny sighed, seeing that this was clearly not going anywhere. "Ma'am, can you please step off to the side? I would like to talk to all of you in private," she asked, deciding that the best course of action was to get them away from the eye of nosy onlookers.

Daisy continued scowling, but turned on her heel and began stomping away to an area that offered more closure.

"I'm so sorry about this, Officer Jenny," May apologized, linking hands with Drew as they followed after the eldest Cerulean Sister.

"Don't be. She's not the first to react like this, and she definitely won't be the last," the woman assured her.

Violet huffed, but followed along, anyway. "This is _so_ not, like, good for my hair."

Once they were well away from any unwanted viewers, Officer Jenny came to a stop and turned back to the group, "Now, I take it that you three are direct relatives of the girl in question?" she began.

"Of course we're like, relatives," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "We're her sisters."

"I see," Officer Jenny continued, ignoring her demeaning tone. "And you two, how are you involved?"

"Drew and I are close friends of Misty," May answered, seeing the obvious headache that Drew was developing.

"Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Can you start from the beginning? Tell me exactly what happened," Officer Jenny told her, taking out a notepad.

"We've already told you everything that we know," Drew replied, frowning. "We decided to participate in Kanto Contests, and seeing as Misty is a close friend, she offered us a place to stay for a few weeks. May had been planning on visiting, anyway, so we agreed."

Officer Jenny nodded her head, scribbling down notes. "Please, continue."

"I'm afraid there isn't anything more we can tell you," May spoke up. "Misty had a Gym Leader conference, so we went out for dinner. By the time we got back, she...she was…"

"Shh, May. It's alright," Drew spoke softly, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend.

"And what about you three?" the bluenette questioned, turning towards the trio of sisters.

"We just got here, how are we supposed to know anything? That's your job," Daisy snapped back, harshly.

Officer Jenny sighed. "Very well, then. Now, are you sure that there isn't anything you've missed? Nothing out of the ordinary that might give us some indication as to where Miss Waterflower may be, or who she may have been attacked by?"

Both Drew and May shook their heads, and the officer nodded.

"I'll have another officer question you later on, just in case you remember anything. Until then, I'm afraid you won't be able to enter the Gym. You'll have to relocate temporarily, and I'll need the address for further inquiries," she explained.

"Haven't you people, like, got anything better to do?" Violet, glaring at the officer. "They've already told you everything that they know, now please, leave us alone!"

"We'll let you know," May interjected, before the situation got any worse. The sisters were clearly upset over their youngest sibling, and being questioned obviously wasn't helping their situation. Verbally abusing a police officer definitely wasn't about to land them any favors, either.

Officer Jenny nodded. "Thank you for your time," she said, tipping her hat and quickly walking away.

"I can't believe that something like this could have happened," Daisy whispered, as soon as the bluenette was out of sight.

"Who would like, do something like this?" Violet asked, quietly. "It makes no sense. Who would want to kidnap Misty?"

Drew glanced at May, remembering the note that was found in the kitchen; Something that Lily didn't miss. "You two are hiding something," the pinkette accused. "What do you know that we don't?"

Drew sighed. He had been hoping to avoid this, at least until they were able to confirm it.

"Please," Violet begged, her voice shaky. "I, like, know that it doesn't seem like it, but...Misty is our sister. Despite everything, she means the world to us. If you like, know something, anything that could help her…"

May stepped forward, placing a hand on Drew's shoulder. "Not here," she said softly, shaking her head.

"So, then you do know something?" Daisy asked hopefully.

"We were trying to wait until Tracy was able to analyze it, but I don't think we'll be able to wait that long," May confessed.

"Well?" Lily pressed, impatient. "Like, what is it?"

"I think it's best that we go somewhere completely out of earshot. You're going to want privacy for this. We can't risk any witnesses."

_To be continued..._

**Please read and review, constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated. Even if you just say "Good", "That was terrible" or "Continue", I'll be happy. **

**~Aureillia**


	3. - Confusion & Contemplation -

**By order of their review, I would like to thank: schoolmouse33, TheCharizardDude, ShinyDragonair2, Ready To Flyxxx, , QUEENSPELLER67, JordanMax, Pure Gamer, jayfeather12345, blue kitten, Aaml mania, and PichutheMadHatter for their support :)**

* * *

_"Determination today leads to success tomorrow."_

_**Game Over **_

_Chapter Two - Confusion and Contemplation -_

"And with that astonishing, final attack from Frogadier, Hawlucha has fallen! Another win for Ash Ketchum!"

"Isn't this great, Brock?" Bonnie shouted over the thousands of cheering observers. So far, the youngest of the Kalos trio had been the only one to really make any effort to communicate with him.

"Huh? Yeah, sure. Great," he replied back absentmindedly, too distracted by his own thoughts to pay full attention to his surroundings.

Being too absorbed in the current happenings herself, Bonnie didn't pick up on his strange behavior. Instead, she turned back to the battle field where Ash was congratulating his Frogadier. It was already the second round in the battles, and so far Ash had been doing extremely well. In fact, despite it only being his second battle, he was already picked as a favourite to win.

With Pikachu on his team, and determination coursing through his veins, nothing was stopping him now.

* * *

Daisy, Violet, and Lily marched over to the apricot-coloured bed in single file, irritation clear on their faces. The moment they sat down, each of them glared at both May and Drew, crossing their arms in annoyance.

"Well?" Violet demanded, impatient to know what they had found. "Are you like, going to tell us what all of this is like, about?"

"Yeah," Lily voiced. "What's with all the like, secrecy?"

"And why," Daisy began, glancing around the room in distaste, "are we like, in a Pokemon Center of all places? Totally gross."

"Like, totally," Lily agreed.

"These walls are like, clashing with my hair," Violet commented, puffing her locks. Drew sighed. Even in a serious situation, they were still more concerned about their appearances. Misty's sisters never ceased to amaze him.

Daisy nodded her head at Violet's statement, fixing her gaze back onto Drew. "So like, are you going to tell us what all of this is about? This terrible colour coordination is like, making me dizzy."

"Totally like, gross. Plus, this fabric is like, making me totally itchy!" Lily complained, shifting her body so that no skin was touching the sheets.

"Okay, okay!" Drew rushed out, double checking the door to make sure it was locked.

Seeing as it was too risky to say anything outside and the Gym had been taped off, they had decided that getting a room at the Pokecentre was the next best available course of action. A little dramatic, sure; but in their case they didn't really have much of a choice. Especially considering the fact that Drew hadn't wanted to say anything in the first place.

He turned back around to face the trio of annoyed looking sisters, slowly walking over to where May standing. She was scared, but not of their reaction. No, the reaction that Misty's prissy siblings would surely have was nothing compared to the terror she felt from the cause of it.

"We didn't say anything earlier to keep everyone calm, including ourselves," Drew began, glimpsing at his girlfriend briefly. "It wouldn't help the situation any better if we were all on edge. Not to men-"

"Would you like, spit it out already?" Daisy interrupted, a dangerous expression dawning across her face.

"Please, just let Drew explain," May reassured quietly, drawing her arms tighter to her chest.

Drew gave her an appreciative smile, before turning back to the others, "Like I was saying, we didn't want to worry anyone even further," he continued.

"Yes, yes," Lily drawled, rolling her eyes. "We've like, got that part. Just get on with it already! Tell us what's like, going on."

"It's not tell you as much as..._show_ you," Drew told them, and all three tilted their heads in confusion. If their situation wasn't as foreboding, he would have found the sight quite comical. Slowly, he reached into his pocket, wincing as the tips of his fingers brushed against the object he was looking for. His hand clasped around the paper, bringing it out and holding it up for everyone to see.

The sisters gasped as the crumpled note was shown to them, expressions of horror clear on their faces.

In bold, crimson coloured writing, the letters _'TR'_ were written in blood.

* * *

"...and then bam! I knew that it was the only way out, so I took it," Ash explained, describing in detail the events of his latest battle.

"Wow," Serena breathed out, completely awestruck.

"That was quite an impressive display, Ash," Clemont agreed, nodding his head in approval. "It seems as though all of that training has really paid off"

"Tell us what happened when you sent out Fletchinder! I thought for sure that you'd send out Pikachu," Bonnie begged, her eyes sparking with excitement. The raven haired boy grinned, and began to recount that particular part of the battle. Something that everyone was completely entranced in...all but one.

Brock had been silent for a while, now. Not saying a word other than a small congratulations and a pat on the back when Ash had first returned from the arena. Luckily for him, the boy was too caught up in his most recent victory and praise from everyone else to notice.

For once, Brock was grateful for his friend's over sized ego.

'_Something isn't right. There's no way she would just not come,' _he thought, absentmindedly poking at the plate of rice in front of him. Bits and pieces of the conversation made their way to his ears, but he didn't take much notice.

"...go out for dinner to celebrate?" Serena asked eagerly.

"Dinner?" Ash repeated. "Sorry, Serena, but I have to train. A Pokemon Master doesn't quit until his task is complete!"

"Oh," was all she replied, dropping her eyes to her own empty plate.

"After I win this thing, I'll take you to dinner," he suddenly stated, causing the honey blonde to snap her head up.

"Really?"

"Sure," Ash agreed, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. "I'll get enough cash from the prize money to treat all of you. It'll be like a group celebration!"

At this, Serena sighed, and suppressed the urge to scream._ 'Idiot,'_ she thought. _'Why does he have to be so dense?'_

"I don't think that's what she was getting at," Clemont mumbled, and Bonnie nodded in agreement.

"Has he always been like this?" Bonnie asked Brock, looking puzzled when he completely ignored her.

At this, Ash finally noticed his friend's odd behavior. "Is everything okay, Brock?" Ash questioned, wondering why his friend seemed to be less involved than usual.

"Huh?" the boy in question looked up at the sound of his name, and Ash tilted his head in confusion.

"Don't you like the rice or something?"

_'Of course he'd link it straight to the food.' _Brock shook his head slowly; half to snap him out of his thoughts, and half for Ash's benefit.

"Nothing's wrong, I'm just feeling a little weird. Why do you ask?" It wasn't exactly a lie.

"You just seem a little down, is all. Are you sure you're alright?" Ash asked once more. Now that he thought about it, Brock hadn't spoken a word to him since he had come back from the battle.

"I'm fine, Ash. It's probably just something I ate. Different food from Kanto, you know," Brock covered, using his friend's obsession with food to his advantage.

Ash shrugged, choosing to ignore it. "If you say so."_ 'That's odd. He's never this quiet. But Brock wouldn't lie, right?'_

"_All competitors, please make your way down to the stadium. I repeat, all competitors make your way to the stadium. The next round will begin in twenty minutes,"_ the announcer's voice instructed, booming over the intercom.

"Alright!" Ash shouted with enthusiasm, jumping out of his seat. "Let's go get 'em, buddy!" Upon receiving no reply, he looked over his shoulder quizzically. "Uh, buddy?"

"Um, Ash..." Clemont spoke up, gesturing over towards a counter.

"Crap, he's still with Nurse Joy! Wait...they're_ all _still with Nurse Joy!" Ash cried out in realization, instantly making a dash for his Pokemon.

"C'mon, Brock! We need to hurry if we want good seats," Bonnie called out, already running after her brother and Serena.

'_She should have been here hours ago,'_ Brock thought, worry creeping back into his mind._ 'What could have possibly kept her? She wouldn't have missed this, not for the world.'_

* * *

The three sisters sat in silence, each with their mouth agape. Shocked and horrified eyes stared at the paper in Drew's hand, refusing to believe what right in front of them.

"Is this some...some kind of joke?" Daisy finally hissed, glaring at Drew. All traces of her valley-girl accent had completely disappeared from her tone, fear and anger radiating from her body.

"I wish it was," Drew replied quietly, feeling May's hand slip into his own.

"But that's not like, possible!" Violet shrieked, snapping out of her reverie. "Team Rocket don't target people like Misty."

"We don't understand it ourselves," May admitted.

"Why the hell didn't you tell us about this sooner?" Daisy demanded, her furious gaze never once faltering.

"We couldn't risk anyone finding out," Drew quickly explained, holding up his hands in defence as the blonde's expression only angered further. "I know you're her sisters, but we needed you all to be as calm as possible."

"Calm?" Lily repeated in a disbelieving tone. "Our sister is like, missing! Kidnapped by like, Team Rocket, and you expect us to remain _calm_?"

May resisted the urge to groan. "This is exactly what we were trying to avoid," Drew supplied, nearly wincing as three killer glares were cast upon him. "We didn't want anyone to find out until it had been confirmed. Until then, it was better to just keep it to ourselves. "

"What about like, Officer Jenny?" Violet demanded.

"Especially not Officer Jenny," May stated. "If she knew, it would have only caused more problems for us."

Drew nodded in agreement. "Exactly. There isn't anything that the police can do to help, they would have forced us all under surveillance."

"But the police-"

"Would only keep us out of the way," May cut in. "They'd say it would be too dangerous for any of us to get involved in, when in reality we're probably the only ones that can do anything about it."

"Telling the police would only create more problems for us rather than solve them," Drew said. "Whatever reason Team Rocket has for taking Misty, it must be personal."

"But what could she like, possibly be involved in?" Lily shouted, shooting out of her seat to glare at Drew. "Misty has like, no contact with Team Rocket! Period."

"I've been trying to figure that out myself," Drew admitted, running a hand through his hair.

"I still can't believe it," Daisy whispered, her hands shaking.

May took a deep breath, feeling Drew's hand tense in her own.

"I'm sorry that we didn't tell you earlier," she started, dropping her gaze to the floor. "We just wanted to be sure. Besides, anything that she's gotten into...Officer Jenny can't help with. Nobody can. We need to do this by ourselves. Team Rocket don't just do things for kicks, it's serious. Deadly serious. They've done this for personal reasons; the police wouldn't have been able to help with that."

"I still don't like, understand what they could want from Misty," Violet said quietly. "They have nothing to gain from kidnapping her."

"The only reason that comes to mind is that she's one of Kanto's strongest Gym Leaders," Drew spoke up. "The Cerulean Gym is ranked pretty high among the League."

"That still doesn't explain what they like, want from her," Lily pointed out.

"So you're positive that you don't know any reason at all as to what Team Rocket would want with Misty?" May inquired. All three shook their heads.

"Like, none," Lily told them, sighing. "As far as we like, know, Misty hasn't seen or heard from them since like, coming back from her travels with that Ash kid." At the mention of Ash, May sent Drew a worried glance.

Daisy's head shot up. "I'll call Tracey," she announced, suddenly snapping out of her reverie and pulling out her phone. "Misty's been at the lab a lot. Maybe he-"

May shook her head, turning back to the blonde. "Drew and I have already tried calling, but we only ever got Professor Oak. He said that Tracy was off doing research."

"But I thought you like,_ wanted_ to contact the Professor," Lily interjected.

"Yes, that's true," Drew admitted. "But we wanted to talk to Tracy before getting him involved."

"Either way," Daisy continued, waving a hand in dismissal, "I'm still calling. Besides, I have Tracey's number. Not Professor Oak's." The eldest of the Waterflower siblings dialed her boyfriend's number, impatiently standing up and pacing as she waited for an answer.

"So like, what exactly do we do from here?" Violet inquired, inspecting a nail.

"To be honest, we're not sure," May told her, shifting her balance to lean on one leg. "The best thing we can do is-"

A loud sigh cut through their conversation, and Drew shifted his gaze over to where Daisy was glaring at her phone.

"No luck?" he questioned, already knowing the answer.

"Unfortunately," Daisy replied, snapping the device shut in annoyance.

"Maybe we should try the videophone again," May suggested. "After all, it's probably best that we speak to him face to face. We'll call Professor Oak and just hope that he's there. There isn't much else we can't do at this point."

"I think she's like, right," Lily agreed.

"But like, what do we use to like, call him?" Violet questioned. "The Gym has been like, closed."

"The Pokecentre has videophones," May pointed out.

"Isn't that a little risky?" Drew asked, already picturing the panic and raucous it would cause if anyone overheard them.

"Let's just hope there'll be nobody around," she replied, letting go of his hand and moving towards the door.

"And if there is?"

May shrugged. "Then we'll whisper."

* * *

"And the winner is...Ash Ketchum!"

The crowed erupted into cheers, Serena, Clemont and Bonnie being among the loudest in the stadium.

"I knew he could do it!" Serena shouted. Clemont grinned, looking down to where Ash and his opponent were shaking hands.

"C'mon, we better start leaving or else we won't be able to find a table," Bonnie exclaimed, tugging at her brother's shirt.

"Always in a rush," Clemont muttered.

"I agree with Bonnie. Besides, I want to congratulate Ash!" Serena announced, already pushing her way through the large group of spectators.

"Alright!" Bonnie cheered, yanking Clemont along as she went after Serena.

"Are you coming, Brock?" she asked, turning back towards where the man in question was gazing down at the battlefield.

"Yeah, sure," he replied, slowly standing up to follow the trio. It took the group very little time to make their way down to where Ash was waiting, thanks to Serena forcing her way through determinedly.

"Ash!" she called, running up to him with a huge grin on her face.

"Hey, Serena," he greeted, laughing.

"That was amazing!" Serena cried. "I knew you could do it, you'll win this thing with no trouble at all."

"Gee, thanks," he replied sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.

"You were great out there, Ash!" Bonnie yelled, running up to him with Clemont trailing behind her.

"It was nothin', really," Ash said back, shrugging. "Hey, where's Brock?"

"Right over here," Brock announced, walking up to the group slowly. "Congratulations, Ash." His tone held no happiness, nor any emotion in it. The younger male frowned, eyeing his friend in concern.

"Hey, let's go get a table before they all fill up," Serena cut in, not noticing the situation.

"Uh," Ash started, taking another glance at Brock. Go ahead, I'll meet you guys there."

Serena shrugged. "Sure thing, c'mon Bonnie!"

"Right behind you!" Bonnie cried, racing after her friend.

"Females," Clemont muttered, trudging after them.

As soon as they were gone, Ash turned to Brock, "Are you sure everything is okay, Brock?" he inquired, a frown taking over his features.

"Huh?" Brock asked, only half paying attention.

Ash sighed. "I asked if you were okay. Aren't you happy that I'm winning?"

"Of course I'm happy," Brock stated, although his tone didn't change. "This is the best you've ever performed."

"I may be not be the smartest guy when it comes to feelings," Ash began, tearing his gaze away from the floor to look at Brock. "But despite what a lot of people think, I'm not a complete idiot."

_'Debatable. Very debatable," _Brock thought to himself.

"You're acting weird, and I doubt it's because of the others. You were fine around May, Max, and Dawn. This shouldn't be any different,' Ash finished, staring at the older male intensely.

"I already told you-

"And don't blame it on the food, either," Ash interrupted. "Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie are all fine, so it couldn't have been anything you ate."

"They grew up in Kalos. I'm used to food from Kanto," Brock pointed out.

"That's not the point!" Ash shouted. "Anyway, you've traveled to other regions before, and that's never made you sick."

"There's a first time for everything," he insisted, shrugging.

"Then how come I'm not affected?" Ash demanded. "I grew up in Kanto, too, you know."

"In all fairness, Ash, you could eat at least three families out of house and home and still have enough room for an entire Pokecentre's worth of meals," Brock stated.

"Hey! I-"

"Besides," Brock continued, cutting him off. "You're used to traveling to different regions. Your body would have grown used to it by now."

"You're avoiding the question," Ash accused, ignoring the other words.

Brock sighed, rubbing a hand against his head. "Really, Ash, I'm fine," he replied.

"But Brock-"

"Shouldn't you be resting for your next match? You still have one more before the rounds for today are over," Brock interrupted.

Ash sighed. "I'm just worried about you."

"You should be worrying about your Battles, Ash. Not your friends."

* * *

_Ring Ring Ring! Ring Ring Ring! Phone Call! Phone Call!_

An old man looked up in annoyance at the tedious sound emanating from the lab's videophone; it had been cutting into his research a ridiculous amount of times as of late. Yawning, he stood up and stretched, before making his way over to the infernal contraption.

"Yes?"

"Professor Oak!" Daisy shrieked, causing the man to wince.

_"Oh, it's you, Daisy. I thought you were one of those bothersome board members from Johto again,"_ Professor Oak replied, frowning at the thought.

"I'm so glad we got through to you," May breathed in relief, thanking Arceus that they'd actually caught a break and there was nobody in the Pokemon Center.

_"May's there too?"_ he asked. _"Hold on, Daisy, I thought you and your sisters were off in Fuchsia?"_

"We don't have time to explain," Drew cut in, before turning to May. "Can you move your big airhead? I can't see a thing."

"Hey!" May cried. "Maybe if the shrubbery sprouting from your skull didn't blend in so well with the colour of the monitor, you'd be able to tell the difference!"

_"What can I help you with, Daisy?" _Professor Oak inquired, ignoring the couple.

"Is Tracy there? There's something important we need to talk to him about," Daisy answered.

_"I'm sorry, but he's still doing fieldwork. I can give him a message, though,"_ the old man told her.

Daisy shook her head. "We nee- _Argh! You idiots just ruined my hair!" _she screeched, while May and Drew gazed at her in fear.

"Out of my like, way!" Violet yelled, shoving the arguing trio away and moving into the monitor's view. Professor Oak , wondering just how many of them there were.

"Professor Oak, is there like, any way you can contact Tracy? This is like, totally urgent!" she exclaimed.

"Totally urgent," Lily echoed, nodding her head. "It's like, about Misty."

_"Misty?" _he repeated, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

_"What's this about Misty?" _a new voice crackled over the monitor, and the two looked over the old man's shoulder to see Gary Oak standing there.

"That's none of your business!" Daisy hollered, breaking away from her banter to glare at the boy.

Gary frowned, walking over to the monitor. _"Misty's my friend, too," _he pointed out, and Daisy scoffed.

"Oh, please. She wouldn't even give you the time of day. Besides, this isn't any of your concern," she stated, Violet and Lily nodding as backup.

_"Of course it's my concern!"_ he growled out. _"Misty and I-"_

"Whatever," Daisy interrupted, rolling her eyes for added effect.

"You're like, wasting our time," Violet drawled.

_"What's going on in here?"_

"Tracy!" Daisy cried. "Thank goodness you're here, we_ have_ to talk to you."

_"Oh, thank Mew,"_ Professor Oak muttered. _"If you'll all excuse me, I have research to attend to."_

He gave a brief nod, before turning and quickly scuffling passed newcomer tilted his head in confusion, making his way over to the screen.

_"Sweety?"_ Tracy asked in confusion, seeing his girlfriend's expression. _"What's wrong? Did your trip get cancelled?_"

"It was like, terrible!" Violet wailed. "We were like, so close to finishing, when-"

Lily sighed. "This isn't like, the time, Violet," she cut in, pulling her sister away from the screen.

"Not exactly, but this is really important," Daisy explained, before turning to glare at Gary. "But I can't say anything with _him _in the room."

Gary clenched his fists and glared back at the blonde, before saying, _"I already told you, whatever this is about concerns me, too."_

"I wasn't talking to_ you_," Daisy stated stubbornly, flipping her hair. Drew and May groaned in unison, slapping a hand to their faces. This was _not _the time to be arguing. Tracy eyed the two skeptically. He'd only been here for a minute, and already his head was in tangles.

_"If it involves Misty then it's more than my concern!" _Gary argued back.

"Hardly," Daisy remarked.

_"Oh, Misty?" _Tracy spoke up, his eyes widening in realization.

"Yes!" the blonde yelled in frustration. "We need to tell you something extremely important about her, but I refuse to talk while that...that_ thing_ is in the room."

_"That 'thing' has a name, you know,"_ Gary stated, glaring at the girl.

"Whatever, just get the Oak brat out," Daisy demanded.

_"Don't worry, Gary already knows about it,"_ he told her, chuckling. Daisy looked at him in confusion, while the others stopped their mini-quarrels to pay attention.

"Gary already...what?"

_"Well, yeah. It was his idea," _he explained, and Gary sighed as he finally understood what was going on.

"His _idea?_" Daisy hissed through gritted teeth.

Gary shrugged. _"Sure. I thought it was about time, don't you agree? Those two had it coming to them."_

_"Isn't it great?" _Tracy continued, oblivious to the look on his girlfriend's face._ "We've been planning it for months!" _All those not in the lab stared at him with a dumbfounded look on their faces.

"Wait," May spoke up, a dark look crossing her features. "So_ you're_ the reason that Misty wasn't at the Gym when we got back?"

_"Of course she wasn't,"_ Gary interjected. _"That was the plan, after all."_

Daisy gritted her teeth. "You mean to tell me that you were behind this? You're both the ones who set this entire thing up?"

_"Yeah," . Tracy agreed. "We were all in on it. Gary had the idea and I came up with a foolproof plan. Oh, and Brock's in on it, too. He went ahead to make sure there wouldn't be any complications."_

"What the hell are-

"What the_ hell _are you playing at?!" Daisy screeched, cutting May off. Gary and Tracy stared at her quizzically.

_"What do you mean?"_ Tracy questioned.

_"Aren't you happy that she's gone?" _Gary asked.

"Gone?"May and Daisy repeated in unison, and Drew pushed his way forward.

"Look, I don't know what you're both on about, but how could you _possibly _think we would be happy about this?" he demanded.

_"Would you have preferred to have been in on it? I'm sorry that we didn't tell you earlier, but you do see the need for secrecy, right?" _Tracey replied.

_"I can't understand why you're acting like it's a big deal,"_ Gary said._ "Aren't you glad that it's finally out of the way?"_

"It?" Daisy seethed."That 'it' is my sister!"

"Misty could be in serious trouble right now, and you two are taking it as some sick, twisted joke!" Drew yelled.

_"I don't get what you're so mad about. Misty agreed to do this,"_ Gary remarked.

_"Besides, she definitely deserved it," _Tracy joined in, backing him up.

"Deserved it?" Daisy spluttered in disbelief.

"In what universe would Misty agree to have her Gym trashed, her Pokemon critically wounded, and taken by Team Rocket of all people?" May hollered, glaring daggers at the two.

_"Team Rocket?" _Tracy mumbled in shock, and Gary's eyes widened in horror.

_"Wait, that's impossible. Misty was due at the airport an hour ago."_

"She's been missing since yesterday!"

_"What do you mean?" _Gary demanded. _"Isn't she in Kalos?"_

* * *

"And now, ladies and gentleman, we have Jeffrey Ahkmetov versus Ash Ketchum!"

The entire stadium bursts into roars and applause, everyone cheering for their preferred favourite Trainer.

"C'mon, Ash!" Serena cried, shooting a fist into the air.

"Do you think he'll win this one, Clemont?" Bonnie questioned, eyeing Ash's opponent nervously.

"It's a pretty even chan-"

"Of course he will," Serena interjected, cutting Clemont off. "Ash will pound that guy into the dirt! Go, Ash!"

All the while, a single member of the audience remained completely silent.

_'Misty, where are you?'_

_To be continued..._

**I know that Team Rocket isn't exactly some super-powerful, threatening organization, but let's just pretend, m'kay? Try and forget all of the pathetic things, and picture when they controlled Mewtwo or captured Lugia...before their epic fail, of course. It's fanfiction; imagination is key~!**

**Oh, and Daisy's lack of 'likes' in the second half was intentional. I see her as the most mature out of the lot, so I feel as though it would sort of switch off in serious situations.**

**Don't forget to review what you thought! If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.**

**~Aureillia**


	4. - Evaluations & Explanations -

**By order of their review, I would like to thank: Aaml mania, Shiny Dragonair2, QUEENSPELLER67, schoolmouse33, Jordan Max, Ready To Flyxxx, blue kitten, OfficerGirzzlyBear, the Guests, PichuTheMadHatter and Pure Gamer for their continued support :) **

**Sorry about the long wait. This was meant to be up a week ago, but...I **_**really **_**wanted to post it on my birthday!**

* * *

"_All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."_

_**Game Over**_

_Chapter Three - Evaluations &amp; Explanations _

The door slammed open quickly to reveal a frantic-looking brunet, startling the unprepared group standing on the other side.

"Finally! It took you long enough," Gary remarked, a hint of annoyance present in his voice. He ushered the small group inside impatiently, earning huffs and scowls from the Sensational Sister's.

They were tired, hungry, and in desperate need of running water. After being on the road for roughly a week, the Waterflower's had made a silent oath never to set foot outside the Gym again unless it involved the luxuries that came with their jobs. The group had left almost immediately after the phone call to Pallet, and the trip had been anything but pleasant. While Misty's sister's didn't share her dislike for bugs, they certainly had no qualms about expressing their distaste for the outside world.

The journey from Cerulean to Pewter hadn't been too bad, until they got to Mount Moon; that was one particular experience both Drew and May wished to erase from their memories and never be reminded of again. By the time they'd gotten a quarter-way through the forest, Drew was one 'like'-laced complaint away from tearing his hair out. With every tree that passed by, he'd seriously considered putting his hair to good use by making a run for it and becoming one with the greenery surrounding them. Merging with nature seemed like a _very _appealing option at the time; anything to get away from the whining.

"Well, excuse us," May said back sarcastically, rolling her eyes as Gary rushed them all to the lounge area. "It's not our fault that we had to get out of Cerulean without Officer Jenny tracking us down."

"Not to mention that fact that we had to travel on foot," Drew added, taking a seat on one of the beige-coloured couches.

"With the trio of walking headaches," May muttered to herself.

Getting out of town had been tricky, but not nearly impossible. The Gym was, unfortunately, located right near the path leading from Cerulean to Pewter, and there was no time to take the long way around. That would involve going down Route 5 to Saffron, and from there to Celadon to start down the long road to Fuchsia.

Taking that course would have been a weeks journey in itself, and that's if you didn't count traveling by sea to reach Cinnabar before Pallet. No; the only option was to sneak around the stationed Police and then run like hell.

"Excuses, excuses," Gary replied, waving his hand in dismissal. He gestured for everyone to sit down, and then turned towards Drew. "Now, tell me _exactly_ what happened."

"We've already been over this," Drew told him, slightly irritated at the fact that he'd been forced to repeat himself several times within the past few days.

"So go over it again. There might be something crucial that yo-"

"Is there like, a towel around here or something?" Lily loudly interrupted. "This whole like, humidity thing is so not good for my hair."

"Like, so true," Violet agreed, pulling out a compact and inspecting her reflection. "It's like, totally ruining my makeup!" They were currently gazing around themselves in boredom, obviously not paying an ounce of attention to the conversation going on. Gary sent the two a glance of vexation. Didn't they understand how important this was?

"Lily, Violet, please. Not now. Can we please be serious?" May pleaded. After a weeks worth of their complaints, she was just about ready to lose it.

"But like, May!" Lily whined, "this _is_ serious. My hair cannot take such like, extreme conditions." To prove her point, Lily yanked a strand of her hair forward and grimaced at whatever faults were present that only she could see.

"She's like, right," Violet put in. "We're like, from Cerulean. Our hair is used to like, aquatic environments an stuff."

"The bathroom hall is out that door. Pick any that you want," Gary instructed, pointing to a doorway on the opposite side of the room. The two girls brightened instantly, rushing out of the room to the closest bathroom's that they could find faster than anyone had ever seen them move before. With them out of the way to not cause any pointless and time consuming distractions, he wasn't all bothered. Their lack of interest in a subject that concerned the whereabouts of their youngest sister, however, wasn't at all something he was impressed with.

May stared at him blankly. "What?"

"Bathroom_ hall_?" she repeated,

He shrugged. "It's a big Lab."

"I still don't see why he has to be here," Daisy spoke up, giving a pointed look towards Gary. The brunet rolled his eyes and groaned.

"For the last time, Daisy, Gary can help us," Drew told her, bracing himself for the whine that was sure to follow.

She scoffed and tossed her hair over one shoulder, placing a hand on one hip as she spoke, "So what? Tracy is a researcher as well. He's more than capable of handling things."

"Daisy..." Gary trailed off, deciding it would be useless to argue with the girl. They had more pressing matters to deal with, and the more interruptions that occurred, the longer it would take to get around to them.

"Where is Tracy, anyway?" Daisy asked.

Gary made his way over to the couch where May and Drew were sitting, not looking at her as he replied, "I don't know." He plopped down on the couch next to May. "Probably with Professor Oak."

"Of course you don't," she stated, giving him a mock-sweet smile. "You're good at forgetting things, aren't you Gary?"

He narrowed his eyes. "Stop being so childish," Gary snapped at her.

"Childish? You-"

"That's it! This needs to stop," Drew cut in, glaring at the two of them. "I don't know what your problem is with each other, and quite frankly, I don't care. You two obviously can't be in the same room without clawing at each other's throats, so either you agree to ignore the other or one of you will have to get out."

Neither of them said anything, choosing to alternate between scowling at each other or at Drew. If looks could kill, May was sure that all three would both be reduced to a pile of ash by this point.

"Well?" Drew prodded, "if we're going to get to the bottom of this and figure out what's happened to Misty, you're both going to need to set aside your issues for now and focus on the task at hand."

"Fine, whatever," Gary finally agreed after a few moments, leaning as far back into the couch as he could.

"As long as I don't have to talk to him," Daisy said. The irritation was still heavily present on her face.

"As long as you...you're the one who started this whole thing!" Gary cried in disbelief.

"Well _you_ were the one who-"

"Guys!" May shouted, jumping out of her seat. "Enough. Can we please focus on what we came here for?"

"That's what I've been _trying _to do," Gary exasperated, shifting his glance at Daisy one more time. She still had a furious scowl painted on her features, but didn't look ready to open her mouth again. Once Gary realized this, he continued, "can you go over what happened one more time?"

Drew switched his focus to Gary. "I already told you, we've been through this." His voice was stern."I want to know what all of this Kalos business is about."

"That isn't important," Gary insisted. "Did you see anything suspicious? A kind of liquid, maybe?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes! You might have missed something important."

Drew sighed, running a hand through his hair. May placed her own hand on his shoulder, then shifted her posture to face Gary fully. "We didn't see anything that fits your description. The only kind of thing like that was Sleep Powder, and even then that was mostly used in the pool area," she supplied.

"You're positive?" Gary pressed. "There was absolutely nothing else? She didn't leave any notes or anything? The Police found nothing?"

"Gary, she was kidnapped," May pointed out. "I'm pretty sure she didn't have time to write a letter to everyone."

"It's a valid question," he reasoned.

Daisy smacked her lips, turning the attention towards her and eyeing Gary with distaste. "This isn't getting anywhere. Why isn't Tracy back yet?" It was more of a demand than a question.

Gary shifted his gaze to her, his eyes narrowing slightly before replying, "He's with Professor Oak right now. He'll be in shortly."

"Are you sure?" Daisy questioned, sarcasm lacing her voice. "Maybe you went out to feed the Pokemon and left him there, too."

"Would you get over that?" Gary yelled, throwing his hands up in exasperation. Drew protectively wrapped an arm around May as she ducked to avoid being hit.

"That's your answer to everything, isn't it? Just 'forget about it'," she retaliated, earning a snarl in return. It only seemed to fuel her fire, a triumphant look crossing her face; much to Gary's annoyance.

"Okay, seriously," May piped up, glaring at them. "What the hell happened between the two of you? This is getting ridiculous!"

They remained silent, Daisy's furious gaze intensifying with each moment that passed.

"I _may_ have gotten her lost in the middle of the Viridian forest a few months back," Gary finally told them after a few moments, shrugging.

Daisy scoffed, "Lost? More like stranded! This idiot wandered off to get a closer look at some Pokemon and didn't bother to come back. I had to walk back to the Lab for five hours! In _heels_."

Gary simply rolled his eyes at her words. "I said I was sorry! Besides, nobody asked you to wear heels."

"Oh, that's your excuse?"

"That still wasn't any reason to wipe all of my data on Mega Evolution!" Gary snapped back. "Or break my laptop for that matter."

"You deserved it!"

"They were important files!"

"You_ forgot_ me!"

"Do you have any idea how long it took for me to collect all of that research? Mega Evolution is unique to Kalos!" Gary cried. "And that's not even counting the files that were deleted when you destroyed my laptop." Daisy didn't reply, instead resorting to throwing another intense death glare his way. He returned the gesture with equal force, still extremely bitter about the loss of his data. The sound of footsteps echoed through the next room, and the door opened to reveal Tracey.

"What's with all the yelling?" he inquired, entering the room with a quizzical look on his face.

"Tracy!" Daisy yelped, her expression instantly shifting to one of pure elation as she bounded over to him.

Gary scoffed in a detestable manor, not the least bit surprised at how quickly her mood managed to shift. "Amazing," he muttered, and May nodded blankly in agreement.

"Hey, sweetheart," Tracy greeted, scooping up his girlfriend into a hug. "So," he began, looking over to where the other three were sitting, "what did I miss?"

"Nothing important," Gary told him, eyeing Daisy accusingly. "In fact, we've only just started. Drew was about to run through what happened again."

Drew opened his mouth to protest, but Tracy cut him off, "Haven't we already been through that? I think we should explain things on our end," he said, continuing before Gary could argue, "there's nothing else they can tell us." His tone made it clear that it wasn't up for debate. Gary frowned, but didn't say anything else against the matter. Tracy took hold of Daisy's hand and led her over to another couch opposite the one the others were currently positioned on.

"Where do you want me to start?" he shrugged, looking at May expectantly. She thought for a moment, before looking back at Tracey.

"You mentioned about the trip to Kalos, right?" Tracey nodded. "Then start from there. How did it happen? Why was she going?"

"I guess I'll begin from a few months ago," Tracy started. "Brock and I were reminiscing about our travelling days with Ash, and Misty happened to be over. She'd been at the Lab a lot more frequently lately, so we'd all started to talk more than usual. Gary was here, of course, so we decided to take a break and go to one of the fields around Pallet."

They nodded, prodding him to go on.

"Misty had been in a bit of a...well, she'd been pretty downcast over the past few weeks. None of us said anything, because we didn't want to interfere. She didn't speak to any of us about it and we weren't going to make her. But as soon as we got onto the topic of Ash, she became withdrawn."

Gary grunted in agreement, before looking over at the couple next to him. "And that's when I'd had enough. Ash and Misty hadn't spoken in years, and it was obviously what was making her act this way. Not only that, but it had been affecting not only her work, too. I practically forced Misty to agree to visit him in Kalos, and the other two organised everything else."

Drew bopped his head slowly, processing their words. "And the trip was meant to be last week? Right after the attack happened?"

"That plan was that Brock would head off first, and then a day later Misty would join him," Tracy explained, before a more solemn expression replaced his happy demeanor. "Looks like that never happened, though."

May looked away, biting her lip in an attempt to control her emotions. Drew gave her a gentle squeeze in reassurance, but kept his composure cool. For once, Daisy had a forlorn expression.

"So she really didn't tell you about leaving?" Gary asked quietly, still surprised.

May shook her head, before replying, "she never mentioned anything to us. We didn't know about her trip to Kalos."

Drew nodded in agreement. "It was planned right in the middle of our visit, too. We'd only been at the Gym for a week, and I doubt she would have trusted us with something like that for a whole other seven days. We only found about it last week when you said so over videophone." Gary didn't reply, instead choosing to frown in contemplation. The fact that Misty had said nothing was strange, especially considering May was her closest female friend.

"I'm surprised as well," Tracy admitted. "I was positive she would have said something."

"She hadn't even spoken about that Ash kid in weeks," Daisy piped up, eager to have her two cents. "None of us knew about it either."

"Hardly a shocker," Gary remarked, rolling his eyes. "It's not like she was ever close to any of you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Daisy challenged.

"I'm simply stating the obvious fact that none of you were ever there for her," he said nonchalantly, shrugging. "It's not shocking that she wouldn't have told you."

"What would you know?" she snapped. "It's none of your business, anyway."

He allowed a minuscule smirk to grace his lips. "Considering it was _my_ idea, I think it concerns me a lot more than it does you."

"Misty is my sister," Daisy seethed. "And if you think for a moment that what happened that night gives you any right to-"

"Shut up!" Drew roared, scowling at both of them. "Can we please stay on track here? This is exactly the reason that we didn't get anything done before."

"Sorry," Gary muttered, while Daisy just huffed.

"Honey?" Tracy asked, looking at his girlfriend delicately. "Can you please go make us some tea? I think we have a packet of those non-fat cakes you like so much, you must be hungry."

At the thought of proper food, Daisy squealed, giving him a peck on the cheek before getting up. After sending one final glare at Gary, she walked out of the room. Once she was gone, Tracey turned to Gary apologetically.

"Sorry about that," he said. "She's just..."

"A bitch?" Gary finished for him quietly, causing May to cough to hide the small laugh that threatened to escape her lips.

"You're positive it was Team Rocket? Not just some prank?" Tracy inquired, his tone turning serious.

Drew nodded, pulling out the note. "We found this at the Gym on the night she was taken," he confirmed, passing it over to him. Tracy took the paper, careful to avoid the writing. He inspected it for a few moments, before handing it to brunet stared at the mocking, blazing letters for several seconds, tossing between ripping it to pieces or burning it.

"Tracy'll have to analyze it," Gary spoke slowly, still not taking his eyes of it. "But considering the situation, it seems pretty real to me." He handed the note back to Tracey, who pocketed it.

"We thought so," Drew said. "How long long do you think it will take?"

"Well," Tracy began, pausing for a moment to think it over, "we already have DNA samples of Misty and her Pokemon, seeing as she was at the Lab quite a bit. Because that makes it easier, the process shouldn't take any longer than a few hours."

"I thought that DNA analysis was a fast process?" May questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Normally it is," Tracy admitted. "But there are more factors to consider. For example, I'll have to scan for specifics. There may be other things on the paper, like traces of powder and such. Plus, I'll have to compare the sample to several Pokemon."

May nodded in understanding, before asking quietly, "Do either of you know any reason why Team Rocket would want Misty?"

Gary didn't respond, slightly grimacing at the mention of Team Rocket. Tracy shook his head, folding the paper along the already made creases and putting in his pocket. "I'm afraid not. Misty had no contact with them, and she stayed out of trouble. As far as I know, she was only ever here for work related reasons," Tracy responded.

"She never spoke to you about anything that could have indicated it?" Drew pressed.

Once more, Tracey just shook his head. "If Misty was involved in something, which I highly doubt, she never spoke to us about it."

"Gary?" May asked, turning to the boy next to her who had gone silent. He didn't say anything, still staring at seemingly nowhere with a glazed look in his eyes. May frowned a little, lifting a hand to shake his shoulder. "Gary!"

"Huh?"

"Have you even been listening?" Drew questioned in annoyance.

"Sorry," he muttered. "I've just been thinking."

"Care to elaborate?"

Gary shook his head, moving to stand up. "It's nothing important, don't worry. To answer your question, I don't know what Team Rocket wants with Misty. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have...things to be doing."

Tracy eyed him in confusion. "Professor Oak gave us the day off, remember?"

Gary shrugged. "There are Pokemon that need tending to," he insisted.

"I already took care of that. Besides, Leaf is more than capable of handling any problems," Tracy replied.

"Leaf is here?" Gary asked, his face displaying genuine surprise.

Tracy nodded. "Uh huh. She got here about an hour ago, said there was something important she needed to do."

"Does she know about Misty?"

He remained silent for a moment. "I thought it would be better if she wasn't told. Not yet, anyway."

"They're pretty close, Tracy," Gary pointed out. "Leaf's not going to be happy when she realizes you purposely kept it from her."

"She'll deal with it," Tracy dismissed. "Besides, she has other things to focus on. We'll tell her after we-"

"She has a right to know," Gary argued back, cutting the man off.

"What are you so worried about? If it really concerns you that much, we'll tell her as soon as everything has been sorted out with the the analysis. There's no point in getting worked up over something as trivial as Leaf not knowing," Tracy rebutted.

"But-"

"We're getting off topic," Tracy cut in. "Why are you in such a rush to leave?"

"Well..." Gary trailed off, eyeing the door. "Nobody has informed Brock, have they? He's probably worried out of his mind."

Tracy's eyes widened in realization, and he all but shot out of his chair. "Crap! I completely forgot about Brock."

From the couch, Drew frowned before asking, before asking, "Wait, how long has Brock been in Kalos now? Wouldn't he have called or something?"

Gary shook his head, taking a moment to ponder the question question. "Well, it took you a week to get here, so probably about a week and a half by now. And no, Brock wouldn't have risked calling just yet. He would have labelled it as travel problems, most likely."

"For a week?" May asked doubtfully.

Gary shrugged. "He spent years travelling with Misty. From the stories I've heard, he wouldn't be surprised."

"This presents another problem, I'm afraid," Tracy spoke up, looking slightly annoyed.

"Oh, just great," Drew said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Just what we needed. What is it now? Have all the Pokemon gone rogue? Has the Champion of Hoenn been abducted, as well?"

"Drew!" May hissed, elbowing his side.

"Don't be so dramatic," Gary commented, leaning against the couch. "You're beginning to turn into Dai-"

"I brought desserts!" Daisy announced loudly, cutting Gary off mid-sentence. She burst through the door, holding up an assortment of snacks on a platter in triumph, and drinks on another.

Gary stared at her in annoyance. "What took you so long? Did you eat half the pantry?" Daisy frowned slightly, before a sickly sweet expression plastered itself over her features. She put the snacks down on the table, before walking over to Gary and placing a mug on the coffee table in front of him.

"I made this one _especially _for you," she told him innocently.

His eyes narrowed skeptically at the liquid. "I'm not thirsty, thanks," he declined.

"Drink it. I _dare_ you," she said lowly, an evil glint in her eyes. A wicked smile crossed her face for a moment, quickly dissolving as she turned back to face the group.

"If I wanted to be poisoned, I'd get Misty to make me dinner," Gary replied, shuddering at the thought of the last time she'd attempted to cook them all something.

"Speaking of Misty," Drew cut in, not wanted another argument to break out, "what do you mean by another problem?"

Tracy sighed, thanking Daisy as she handed him a cup of tea. "You've been to a League before, right?"

Drew shook his head. "I do Contests, remember?"

"I've been once; when Ash competed in the Hoenn League," May told them. "Apart from that I've stuck with Contests."

"Well," Tracy went on, looking at Drew, "the League rules prohibit any patrons to carry their Pokenav while in the arena or at any time when the tournament is on. That extends to breaks, meaning that we aren't able to contact Brock directly while he's part of the audience."

"Oh, how wonderful," Drew remarked, sarcasm once again present in his voice.

"Can't we just call him at night?" May pointed out.

Gary shook his head. "No can do. Ash will be around Brock, not to mention his travelling companions. If either Ash sees it's us calling or Brock doesn't say who it is, they're going to get suspicious."

"We could always just go with Plan B," she suggested. "If Ash_ does_ happen see or answer, just get Gary or Tracy to say that Professor Oak wants to ask him a few things to do with Lab research."

"As good as that is, it's still too risky," Gary stated, shaking his head.

"Right," Tracy confirmed. "We can either wait to have Brock contact us, which won't be likely, or we can try and go about using other sources."

"What about the Pokemon Center?" Daisy piped up, taking a sip of her own tea. "Everyone goes there after each battle."

"It can think?" Gary mumbled quietly, and Drew stifled a chuckle.

Tracy grinned, already making his way to the other room for the videophone. "Perfect!"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Gary spoke up, raising an eyebrow pointedly. Upon receiving a blank stare from Tracy, he sighed. "We don't have any Kalosian Pokecenter's information yet."

Tracy frowned quizzically. "I thought Professor Oak updated all of that information months ago?"

"Oh, he did," Gary began, before shifting his gaze to Daisy. "It_ was_ on my laptop."

The blonde froze in mid-chew, taking on a sheepish expression. "I like, think there were some...um, cookies! Yeah. There's some like, cookies that I missed. Be right back!" Daisy suddenly announced, racing out the door before anyone could stop her.

"Well, now what are we supposed to do?" May asked sulkily.

"If only we could contact the Kalos League," Tracy commented, resting his chin in his hands. "It would be so much simpler to just call them and have them page Brock over the speakers."

Gary scoffed, sarcastically remarking, "Oh, marvelous idea, Trace. Simply fabulous. Why don't we just ring up the most esteemed and renowned cooperation of Kalos and just _ask_ them to have Brock come to us. I'm sure they'll just be absolutely ecstatic at the thought of being a delivery service on the side. Brilliant. I applaud you, o' wise and thoughtful one. We'll just-"

"Okay, okay!" Tracy yelled, cutting him off. "I get the picture. We don't have the authority, anyway."

"Damn straight we don't. It's not like we're part of some important facility or so..." Gary trailed off, an evil expression crossing his features. "Hang on."

"What are you on about now?" Drew inquired lazily.

"Maybe you don't have the authority to contact the League," Gary began slowly, a glint in his eyes. "However, you have the world-famous, most loved and respected scientist within your reach. Professor Oak-"

May sat up, her face breaking into a grin. "Gary, you're an absolute-"

"Junior!"

"...idiot."

Suddenly the tall to the bathroom hall was flung open, revealing Violet and Lily."We're like, back!" Violet cried, the latter behind her.

"Thrilling," Gary commented flatly, slumping even more in his seat.

"Ah, that was like, so refreshing!" Violet announced.

"Like, totally," Lily agreed, sighing in content.

"What the heck took you so long?" Drew inquired, before noticing what they wear wearing. "And why are you in _towels_?"

Violet put her hands on her hips before saying, "We don't have any other like, clothes."

"Like, so right," Lily added, "and there was like, no way in hell we were putting those grimy things back on."

"So, what did we like, miss?" Violet asked. "And where is our like, other sister?" Drew sighed, already feeling another headache coming on. May gritted her teeth slightly in an attempt to control her own annoyance, but retained a calm appearance on the outside. Gary, however, didn't bother to hide anything; he groaned loudly, and the two sister's sent him weird looks.

"We're trying to reach a Pokemon Center in Kalos," Tracy explained, not eager to witness yet another fight, "and Daisy went to...get cookies." Violet scrunched up her nose at the thought of calories.

"Can't you just like, call a nearby Pokemon Center and ask for the number?" Lily asked, twirling a lock of bubblegum hair around her finger.

"Right," Violet agreed. "I thought they like, were all required to keep a list of them or something."

Everyone stared at them, torn between smacking their heads against the nearest solid surface or being embarrassed at the obvious solution to their problems. Tracy coughed awkwardly, attempting to break the suddenly shell-shocked others out of their reveries. "I'll just get the videophone, then."

Nobody said a word, and the two sisters shifted uncomfortably.

"Like, um...I know that we're so breathtaking in general, but staring at us when we're in towels is kinda creepy," Violet spoke up after a few moments.

"Totally like, weird," Lily voiced. "It's like, flattering and all, but please. I'm going to like, go find Daisy." The two strutted out of the room in search of their eldest sister, leaving the others in confused states.

"This is wrong, so very, very _wrong_," Gary chanted quietly, too stunned to move. "They're thinking. They're coming up with ideas. They actually have working, functional brains." A few moments later, Tracy entered the room once more, wheeling a large green device in front of him. He pushed the videophone next to the couch and took a seat on one of the arms.

"We installed the wheels a while ago," he told them, ignoring the vacant stares. "It was too difficult with it being in the one room all of the time, so Professor Oak decided to make it portable for easier use."

None of them replied, even when Professor Oak walked into the room to ask how they were doing.

* * *

_"...and with that latest addition to our list of winners, we'll be back after this short interval."_

Gary groaned, running a hand through his hair and while pacing in frustration. "This is ridiculous!"

May chewed on her fifth biscuit absentmindedly. Tracy had called the Viridian Pokemon Center over half an hour ago and, fortunately, managed to secure the number for the PokeCenter associated with the League. Unfortunately, nobody was around at the time due to the current ongoing battles. Professor Oak had suggested watching the television for a live screening of the action, as that was their best bet to not only find out when the breaks would be, but to also keep updated on the winner's.

So far, there had been several 'short intervals' to prepare the next contestants but no actual breaks. Tension had been high, and Gary's frustration was rapidly increasing with every passing moment and spreading to everyone else in the vicinity. The Cerulean Sister's had yet to return, and they were all silently thankful for that; including Tracy.

"Just be patient, Gary," Tracy said for the third time in at least ten minutes. He was just as edgy as the rest of them, but did a better job at hiding it.

"I'm trying, damn it!" Gary yelled, running a hand through his hair once more. "We've been waiting forever, isn't there some limit to the amount of battles or something?"

Drew shifted in his seat, eyeing the screen in anticipation."It should be over soon," he commented, "hopefully after the next battle."

"We can't wait that long," Gary insisted.

"They've only had the one battle since we started watching," Tracy pointed out, earning a glare from the brunet.

"One very long, very excruciating battle," Gary bit back.

"We feel the same way as you do," May chimed in, leaning further into Drew's embrace, "but there isn't anything else we can do at this point. Waiting is tedious, but it's our only option."

"I know that, but-"

_"Welcome back to the annual Pokemon League of Kalos!"_ the commentator's voice cut through Gary's sentence, and all of their head's snapped towards the television. _"We're pleased to inform you that that there are only two more battles on the agenda today, and then we'll be announcing the scheduled list for tomorrow. Without further ado, g-"_

Gary growled, snatching the remote from the coffee table and switching it off.

"Gary!" Tracy chided, frowning at his friend.

"What? It's not like there'll be anything interesting, anyway," Gary remarked, throwing himself onto a chair. "Besides, they said there are still another two battles to go; that'll be at least another hour. At _least_."

The minutes went by slowly, every second that passed even more agonizing than the last. Finally, after Tracy had decided enough time had gone by, the TV was switched back on to reveal the very end of the current match. Gary let out of breath of relief, jumping out of his seat and rushing for the videophone.

"Hold on a minute!" Drew yelled, standing up to getting to the device before Gary could.

"What now?" Gary snapped, already reaching for the phone.

"They've only just finished the battles, nobody will be at the PokeCenter yet," Drew pointed out.

"There's no harm in trying," Gary insisted, scowling when Drew attempted to block the screen from his view.

"We've waited for over an hour," he reminded the boy, "you can wait another few minutes."

"Yes," Gary began, wheeling the device away from Drew, "but Nurse Joy should already be there." Drew sighed, giving up and returning to the couch. With that, Gary dialed the number and tapped his foot impatiently.

"So, how do you plan to tell Brock anyway?" May asked.

Gary eyes widened, and he instantly pulled the phone away from his ear. "A thought just occurred to me," he stated. "I do not want to be on the receiving end of Ashy-boy's wrath when he finds out that his beloved _Mist_ has been taken hostage."

Tracy frowned in confusion, before speaking, "I thought the whole point of this was so that Ash didn't find out? Not yet, anyway."

Gary nodded. "True, but when he_ does_ find out he's going to want to know who Brock heard it from," he pointed out. "And I am _so_ not subjecting myself to that." Just then a door was pushed open, and the Cerulean Sister's waltzed into the room. First Daisy, and then Violet and Lily trailing in a few moments after.

"Are you guys, like, done yet?" Daisy questioned in boredom, looking around the room for any sign of change.

Gary eyes lit up at the sight of her. "Daisy, perfect timing!"

She arched a perfectly plucked eyebrow and eyed him suspiciously. "Are you on something?"

"Nah, just looking forward to seeing how you react when Ash discovers that Misty's gone," Gary told her, grinning as he shoved the phone into her hands before she could stop him.

Daisy's eyes widened in realization, and she turned to look at Tracy with horror. "Sweety?"

"I, uh...oh, is that Professor Oak I hear calling me? Coming!" Tracy shouted, and promptly darted out of the room as fast as he could.

"The vibrations will like, interfere with my like, hair," Daisy stated, quickly whirling around and putting the phone in Lily's hand.

The pinkette grimaced, while Gary wheeled the monitor closer to her and nodded enthusiastically.

"The like, um...wave thingos will totally crack my nails!" Lily announced, handing the phone over to Violet who got another enthusiastic nod from Gary.

"Like, no way!" she refused, marching over to Drew. Gary trailed behind her, pushing the videophone along with him. "He's like, _your_ friend. You tell him!" Drew tried to avoid touching the phone, but was forced to raise his hands to block the incoming object from hitting him in the face. He gazed at the phone, before looking up at everyone.

"I already had to deliver the news to both Misty's sister's and the Lab Rats," he commented, "I shouldn't have to be the one to tell them, as well!"

"Exactly, Gary said. "You've already told the rest of us, why ruin a good thing when it's going? Bad luck to break a chain, y'know."

Drew glared at him, and glanced next to him to give the phone to May. "May, you know Ash better than any of us. Why don't you- May?" Drew looked around in confusion, swearing that she had been next to him only a minute ago. He caught sight of her leaning against the wall with Tracy, taking a sip of tea as she shrugged at him.

"Violet, just make yourself useful for once and-"

"Like, have you lost your mind?" she asked, scrunching up her nose. "That Brock kid is like, a total pervert! He'll like, hit on me again."

"So what?" Drew challenged. "C'mon, take one for the team!"

"Um, guys?" Tracy interjected, but only earned glares from the two.

"Why can't you like, do it?" she questioned. "He's like, your friend!"

"I've barely met the guy!" Drew insisted.

"Guys?"

"Not now, Tracy!" Drew snapped.

"I just wanted to let you know th-"

"You saved him from Team Rocket once, didn't you?" Violet went on, cutting Tracy off mid-sentence.

"That was one time, and I did it for _May_!" Drew persisted, before a confused look crossed his face. "Wait, how do you-"

"Nurse Joy is on the phone!" Tracy hollered, and the two snapped their heads around to the screen to see a very flustered Nurse Joy staring at them with wide eyes.

"Like, not my fault!" Violet chimed, strutting away with Drew glaring after her. He turned back to the monitor.

"Sorry about that," Drew apologized sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Nurse Joy remained silent for a few moments, staring at him with a blank expression. Finally, she shook her head and regained her professional composure. _"It's, uh, quite all right,"_ she assured him, although it seemed more directed to herself. _"What can I help you with young man?"_

"Oh, well..." Drew paused, wondering how to go about this. "I was just wondering if you were able to look up a certain Trainer for me? I know that you're not able to normally give out client information," he continued when she opened her mouth to protest, "but he's a friend in the League and this is important." Nurse Joy stalled for a moment, debating on whether or not to comply. After a few moments, though, she nodded, deciding that if these crazy people were to come looking for their friend in person it wouldn't bode well for the peace.

_"What is your friend's name?"_ she inquired, typing something onto a computer.

"Brock Slate"

_"Just a moment,_" Nurse Joy replied. She pressed a few buttons and squinted at the screen for a few moments, and Gary grabbed Drew's shoulder.

"In the League?"

Drew shrugged, replying, "Well, he's in the League's arena. A little exaggeration won't hurt."

Gary raised an eyebrow, but didn't question it further. If they were going to get any information, a few white lies weren't that big of a deal. He moved away as Nurse Joy turned back to the screen. _"I'm sorry, but there is no record of a Brock Slate signing in here."_

Drew sighed, tapping his chin in thought. "What about an Ash Ketchum?"

Once again Nurse Joy went back to the computer, and Gary leaned back over to Drew, "WWhat are you doing? I thought that we were trying to steer clear of Ash for now?"

Drew shrugged. "We'll just go with Plan B, then."

_"Sorry, but there are no records of any Ash Ketchum's here, either," _Nurse Joy responded. _"Is there anything else I can help you with?"_

"Is there any other way we are able to contact them?" Drew inquired. "You don't know anything to help us get in touch?"

She shook her head._ "If your friend's aren't staying in the Pokemon Center, I'm afraid that there isn't anything I can do to help."_

"What about the League?" Drew went on, intent on getting information.

_"I'm very sorry, but seeing as you aren't officially a part of the tournament, there isn't anything I can do," _Nurse Joy apologized.

"But wh-"

"I'll handle this," Gary stated, taking over half of the screen and flashing his best smile at Nurse Joy. "I believe you misunderstand, ma'am. I am Professor Oak, and this is an extremely urgent matter. We must get in touch with these people immediately."

Nurse Joy eyed him skeptically. _"Young man, I may not be a researcher or well acquainted with the Professor's of the regions, but you are most certainly not Professor Oak."_

"No, perhaps not," Gary admitted, gazing into her eyes. "I'm his grandson, Gary Oak; Professor Oak Junior. Please, isn't there anything that you can do?"

She stared at him for a moment, seemingly entranced by his pleading expression. _"I-I suppose that I c-can make an exception,"_ Nurse Joy stuttered, fumbling around for a folder. _"Professor Oak is a well respected man, after all."_

Gary grinned at her, it was too easy. "Thank you." May rolled her eyes and Drew held in a scoff, while Tracy shook his head in embarrassment.

_"Excuse me, Nurse Joy?" _Drew and Gary focused their eyes back on the screen, and viewed a boy blonde hair leaning over the desk.

_"Just a moment, please," _she replied, continuing to go through the files.

_"Sorry to intrude,"_ Clemont began, looking directly at the screen now, _"but I couldn't help but hear you mention an Ash Ketchum and Brock Slate?"_

Gary and Drew glanced at each other, before nodding their heads slowly. "Yeah," Drew confirmed, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Why do you ask?"

Clemont shifted slightly, obviously uncomfortable with the attention._ "Well...we're traveling with Ash at the moment," _he told them, gesturing behind him to two girls who looked as awkward as he did. _"We're able to pass along a message if you'd like."_

Nurse Joy instantly beamed in appreciation. _"Well, that would be very sweet of you! I'll leave you all for a bit of privacy then, shall I?" _With that, she stood up and moved over to the other side of the desk, beginning to sort through piles of paperwork.

Drew shook his head. "It's a nice offer, but I'm going to have to pass." Clemont tilted his head in confusion, while the obviously older girl behind him frowned slightly.

"While we appreciate the gesture, this is a very personal matter," Gary added on. "We need to speak to either Ash or Brock, this is specifically for them."

The honey-blonde pushed her way forward, an irritated expression taking over her features. _"What is it with you Kanto people?_" she demanded, glaring at them. _"First that Brock guy keeps dragging Ash away for private conversations that exclude us, and now this!"_

Drew raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

_"Anything you have to say to Ash, you can say to us," _she insisted, a furious gleam in her eyes. May slammed her cup on the coffee table and marched over to the screen, pushing Gary and Drew's head's aside with each hand.

"Look here, Missy," May began, glaring back at the girl with as much intensity, "I don't know who you think you are, but this is a personal matter for _friends _only. It's none of your business, nor is it any of your concern, so I'd appreciate it if you kept your opinions to yourself and stayed out of things that don't involve you. And by the way, I'm not from Kanto; I'm from Hoenn!"

The girl let out a growl, opening her mouth to unleash a string of colorful words when a new voice interrupted her,, "_Nurse Joy! Your radiant beauty and luscious pink locks are captivating both my eyes and heart!"_

"I've never been happier to hear him do that," Tracy muttered in relief. The girl on the other end glanced behind her in annoyance, and Clemont shook his head an sighed.

_"Oh, yay!"_ Bonnie squealed. _"Maybe this time she'll become his wife!"_

_"Bonnie..." _Clemont trailed of hopelessly. From their side of the screen, Drew, May, and Gary witnessed Brock prancing over to a once again flustered Nurse Joy.

_"Please, do me the honor of becoming my beautiful wife! I promise that I will-"_

"Brock! Snap out of it before I catch the ferry to Kalos and knock you out of it!" May shouted, and the boy instantly turned to look around in surprise.

_"May?"_ he asked, scratching his head as he surveyed the Pokemon Center in confusion.

"Over here, genius," Gary remarked sarcastically, and Brock glanced at the screen with raised eyebrows.

_"What are you guys doing on the videophone?" _he questioned, walking over to the screen to get a better look.

"Well," May began, shooting a dark look towards Serena, "we were trying to get in touch with you, before Little Miss Nosey over here decided to butt in."

Brock frowned, and glanced over his shoulder briefly. _"I've been meaning to contact you, but I haven't been able to. Have any of you heard from Misty? She hasn't arrived yet and I'm beginning to get worried." _May looked away from the screen, while the others either ran hands through their hair or swallowed thickly.

"That's actually what we called about," Gary said slowly. "But we'll need to speak to you in private," he added, glancing over to where Serena was now turning red with anger.

_"Why?"_ she demanded, leaning over the counter for a better view. _"Because we're not from Kanto? Because we can't be trusted?"_

"Yes, that's exactly why!" May snapped. "Mind your own business."

Drew sighed in annoyance, but ignored Serena's comment. "No, it's nothing personal," he assured her, and she scoffed. "This is a very important matter and there are too many people around."

_"Oh, is that so?" _Serena asked, sarcasm lacing her voice. _"Before you said you couldn't tell us what it was when Clemont offered to pass along a message."_

Brock glanced over at Serena, before looking back at Drew. _"Look, nobody else is anywhere near the counter. Just say it quietly."_

Gary shook his head immediately. "No way, man! This is serious."

_"I know, but Ash isn't around, is he?" _Brock pointed out. _"Besides, this place is packed and noisy. No one is going to listen in. Just say it here."_

"Brock, I really don't think-"

_"They can know,"_ Brock went on, gesturing towards the others and a smug-looking Serena. _"It's not like it'll be a surprise for much longer, anyway._

"You don't understand!" Drew cried.

_"If it was that private, you should have called him personally," _Serena stated.

"It's not like we had much of a choice," Gary replied, frowning slightly. "Pokenav's aren't allowed for those watching the League."

_"Then you should have waited until it was over," _she responded, shrugging.

"It would have been too late by then!"

_"Not our problem,"_ Serena told them.

"Exactly!' May screeched, causing the boy's next to her to cover their ears and wince. "It's not your problem, so why don't you just stay out of it?"

"Gary, just-"

"Fine!" Gary slammed his palms down into the surface of the videophone as he shouted, "Team Rocket broke into the Cerulean Gym and destroyed it. They did it to kidnap Misty!"

_Crash!_

Brock whirled around at the sound of plastic among other things smashing to the floor, and the others looked over his shoulder in horror at the sight that awaited them.

Ash was standing there, frozen and completely pale. His mouth was hanging open in shock, while a tray that had been packed with food only moments ago lay on the tiles in a splattered mess at his feet.

_To be continued..._

**Don't forget to review what you thought! If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.**

**~Aureillia**


	5. - Decisions & Devastation -

**By order of their review, I would like to thank: schoolmouse33, UCCMaster, SuperSonicBros, QUEENSPELLER67, CandyKayKay2001, JordanMax, Pure Gamer, ArmyWife22079 and Ready To Flyxxx, ChocoChipKitty, and Distant Storm for their continued support. Also, a big thanks to MMThunder for their advice :)**

* * *

"_The truth... It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution."_

_**Game Over**_

_Chapter Four - Decisions &amp; Devastation -_

The muddled pile of once delicious food laid in a splattered mess at his feet, but Ash didn't even remember the tray slipping from his grasp. It lay forgotten, nothing else but the echo of Gary's words registering in his mind. The only thing he could do was stare at the screen, a horrified expression set in stone upon his face. Nobody dared to move. They each held their breath, not taking their eyes off of the boy before them. Everyone remained silent as Ash stood frozen like a dear caught in the headlights, struggling to process the flurry of words that had just escaped the former's mouth.

_Team Rocket. Cerulean Gym. Misty. Kidnapped. Destroyed._

Those in Kalos were much the same, albeit having no idea as to what in the world was happening. Cautiously, Serena took a small step towards Ash. Upon receiving no reaction, she began to inch closer, reaching out a hand as she approached him slowly.

"Ash?" Serena asked carefully. Just as she was about to place her hand upon his shoulder, Ash snapped out of his trance and pushed passed her. He marched up to the counter, half throwing himself on top of it in a desperate attempt to get closer to the videophone.

"Gary..." Ash started in a shaky voice, this time looking at Gary with something akin to desperation, "what did you just say?"

It was both a demand and a plea, the need for reassurance that it wasn't real but wanting to hear the truth at the same time. All of his attention glued to Gary, Ash didn't even bother to give a second thought to the papers that flew aside in his haste. Gary's eyes were wide, his mind a jumbled mess at the question. What was he supposed to say to that?

How could he have let his frustration go like that?

From on either side of Gary, Drew and May eyed each other nervously. They honestly had no idea what to say. On one hand, they could tell him. But that would probably lead to Ash yelling and demanding to know even more. On the other, they could just hang up. But that would no doubt make things worse and put him in an even worse mood.

Ash's expression turned angry, "Answer me!" he roared, leaning further over the counter. "What. Did. You. Say?"

"Ash," Gary began slowly, finally snapping out of it and pausing to think over his choice of words, "I think it's better if we talk this over in person."

After all, what else was he supposed to say at this point?

"No!" Ash yelled, attracting the attention of Nurse Joy. "Tell me what's going on, Gary! What do you mean Misty's been kidnapped by Team Rocket? Where is she?"

Gary felt another headache coming on. This wasn't going to be easy. Ash in general was just plain stubborn, but right now he was beyond furious. Not to mention unpredictable. Even if he didn't show it, he was also scared, and that in itself was a terrifying thing. Ash Ketchum didn't get _scared_. Not ever. Nobody else even made a move breathe a word, not wanting to interfere or risk having Ash's anger turned against them.

"I already told Brock, it's too dangerous to speak about it here. I promise we'll talk about it later, but for now we can't say anything with everyone around an-"

"I don't care about everyone else, just tell me what's going on!" Ash cut him off, glaring daggers through the screen.

Nurse Joy stood up from her paperwork, deciding that this was enough. She walked over to the group quickly, narrowing her eyes at Ash as she spoke, "Young man, I'm going to have to ask that you keep your voice down. You're disturbing the other patrons. This is a Pokemon Center, a place where people and Pokemon alike come to rest. Please be respectful."

He remained silent, finally managing to tear his focus away from Gary and turn it towards the rather irritated woman. Nurse Joy was not normally someone to interrupt, nor was she used to showing anything other than her positive demeanor. However, this boy was shouting and breaking the relaxing atmosphere that Pokemon Centers were famous for. Not only that, but his actions may have lead to sick of injured Pokemon to become distressed; that was something Nurse Joy just couldn't allow.

Upon getting no reply, she continued, "If you aren't able to speak in a civilized manor, I'm afraid you'll have to leave."

Ash opened his mouth to retaliate, but Brock cut him off, "She's right, Ash.'

Ash's gaze flickered between them, his glare intensifying with each passing second. After what felt like forever, his posture relaxed and he stood up straighter, a blank expression replacing the furious one. He took one last glimpse at Gary one last time before turning back to Nurse Joy.

"Fine," he spat, before storming away through the Pokecentre.

Serena started to go after him, but Brock held out a hand and shook his head, "Don't. This is something that he needs to sort out by himself."

Her eyes narrowed at the older male. "I'm his friend, too," she argued. "He needs support."

"Serena, he's right," Clemont interjected, earning a scowl from her. "What Ash needs is to be alone right now."

Serena glanced at him, then back at Brock. She let out a small huff as a final protest, but didn't push the subject further. There had already been enough tension, and despite her previous argument with Ash's friends in Kanto she didn't want another fight to take place.

"I'm going to get something to eat," she announced, not giving anyone the chance to reply as she walked away.

On her side of the screen, May frowned as she watched the honey-blonde split from the group. Who was she, anyway?

* * *

Misty opened her eyes groggily as she came to, instantly regretting it as a blinding light immediately burned through her field of vision. She could feel that she was lying on a large, flat object. Most likely a table, she thought. Blinking a couple of times to better clear her hazy eyesight, she attempted to lift her hand to shield her eyes from the incoming luminance. Why wasn't her arm moving?

That was when she realized two things.

One; no light in any form was that bright. Not naturally, anyway. A tugging sensation suddenly caught her attention, and Misty slowly managed to move her head enough to get a decent view. Two; that something was preventing her from all movement regarding anything below her neck.

Or more accurately, they were bound to whatever she was currently lying down on.

Where _was_ she?

Panic beginning to arise, Misty quickly attempted to move her other arm and both legs, only to find that they were in the same situation as the first. She struggled more fervently, pulling at the arm straps, convinced that if she tried hard enough they would give way. Of course, that didn't happen; the material was too tight for Misty to even slide her arm through even a little bit. Lovely. Now what was she supposed to do? All of her limbs were currently restrained by thick, black straps, and she could barely move her head, either.

A flood of questions poured through her mind, none of which she had the answers to. How long had she been here? Why was she here? Where _was_ here? Was she still in Kanto? There were no sounds to indicate what type of place this was, and as far as she could tell there was nobody else in the room.

If only she had her Pokemon...

Her Pokemon! Were they alright? Where were they? Were they here, too?

The more she thought, the more questions arose. She needed to calm down before taking a better look around. Panicking would not help the situation she was in. Not that there was much she could do, seeing as she was tied down, but at this point keeping a clear head was the best option. For now, anyway. Blurry vision still clearing, Misty discovered that the source of light was coming from an overhead lamp. A really big, really _blinding_ lamp. Managing to move her head enough to get a better view of her surroundings, she took in what aspects of the room she could. From what she could gather in her current predicament, Misty deduced that she was confined in a small room.

Everything around was pure white, excluding the lamp and table underneath her. A low chuckle, eerily similar to the one she'd heard back at the Cerulean Gym, suddenly echoed throughout the room. Fear immediately erupted within her, and Misty desperately tried to move her head around more, searching for the source of the sound. Another chuckle, this time more prominent was let out, and she looked over her stomach to see a man leaning against the wall. How did she miss that earlier? In fact, how could she have not looked over her stomach?

"Struggling is pointless. You'll only hurt yourself, sweetheart," the man told her, an amused expression present on his face. From what she could tell, he wasn't the same man that had captured her.

Which brought her back to her first question; where the heck was she?

The fear dissolved, completely forgotten as anger begin to emanate in it's place. If there was anything Misty hated, it was being helpless. Being helpless meant being weak, and being weak was useless. Weak was not a word in Misty's vocabulary. Weak was what she used to be before she met Ash. Weakness meant flaws, and flaws weren't perfection. Misty had worked hard to overpass her sisters, and to do that perfection had to be achieved in the field of becoming a strong Gym Leader. She _couldn't_ be weak.

"Where am I? Who are you?" she demanded, squinting as the light seemed to get brighter. When he didn't respond, she let out a low growl, "Don't ignore me! Take these straps off of me, now. Answer me!"

The more Misty yelled, the more the man laughed. Finally he spoke again, "You ask too many questions. The boss won't like that."

Not exactly the reply she'd been looking for.

A thought hit her. "The boss?" Misty repeated, struggling to keep her head up.

He nodded. "I'm just a guard, doll. But don't you worry; The Boss'll be in shortly."

The strain in her neck became too much, and Misty dropped her head to allow the muscles to relax. She stayed silent for a few moments, processing the meager amount of information that she had somewhat gathered. So far, he hadn't told her anything useful, and the only thing she remembered was a Team Rocket Grunt knocking her and her Pokemon out. Wait... Team Rocket?

Team Rocket!

Misty's blood froze while her face paled at the sudden realization. Team Rocket. Team Rocket had captured her. She was in a Team Rocket base. She was trapped. Their leader was going to be here soon. Was this 'Boss' he kept referring to Giovanni? She certainly hoped not. Although, considering her luck as of recent, it probably was. But she hadn't seen Giovanni in years, not since she'd stopped traveling with Ash. As far as Misty knew, Giovanni had no reason to harm her. Unless he wanted revenge on Ash or was still bitter over the things she did to the organisation _with_ Ash. Such as destroy it's schemes. Or the whole organisation itself. Then he'd have plenty of reasons to harm her.

Just great.

From her position, she wasn't able to get a good view of what the Grunt looked like. Now that she thought about it, the black uniform did make sense. As did the cap she recalled him wearing. At least that answered who was holding her in this place. But why? What would Team Rocket want with her? Unless...

No. It couldn't be. There was absolutely no way that they could have found out about _that_.

It was top secret! Only her and one other person knew about it. Okay, technically two people, but Misty heavily doubted that Professor Oak would be one to gossip with Rocket's. She didn't peg him as the type to gossip in general, anyway. Either way, the only other person that knew was still in Kanto. He wouldn't have blurted anything out to anyone, no matter what.

"Who is this Boss?" she asked again, and he opened his mouth to reply when the sound of static filled the air. The guard pulled out a radio and held it to his ear, nodding once before turning back to her.

Another smirk spread across his lips. "Looks like you're about to find out."

The small section of the wall behind him suddenly split apart, and Misty lamented herself for not taking note of the obvious line indicating a door. He turned around without a second glance and bowed slightly at something she couldn't see, before making his leave. Misty tried to crane her neck further, still unable to get a glimpse of who was standing there.

Heavy boots pounded against the tiles and the doors slid shut. The figure came closer, eventually moving so that he was right beside where she was restrained. An image flashed through her mind, and all of a sudden it clicked. Misty's eyes widened in both shock and confusion as she registered the identity of the male standing before her. Oh, he was familiar alright, and he wasn't Giovanni.

"You!"

"It's a pleasure to see you again, Miss Waterflower."

* * *

Clemont cleared his throat, adjusting his glasses as he turned to face Brock. "I'm going after Serena. Someone needs to keep an eye on her."

He glanced at the screen, giving the people on the other side an awkward nod before scurrying off after his female companion. Brock shifted his attention to Bonnie, finally realizing that the youngest of the trio had witnessed the whole thing and was probably extremely confused right now. Delving a hand into one of his pockets, Brock searched around for a couple of coins. His hands closed around the desired items, and he pulled them out. Bonnie eyed the money curiously, looking back up to him for an explanation.

"Here, go buy yourself an ice-cream or something. This might take a while," Brock told her, adding a smile for reassurance. After a couple more seconds of scrutinizing the money, Bonnie grinned and allowed him to drop the coins into her outstretched hands. Thanking Brock and waving a cheery goodbye to those in Kanto, she skipped away to purchase the frozen goods.

Once she was gone, Brock turned his attention towards those in Kanto. Nurse Joy had gone, but left with a stern warning of if there was any more shouting, they'd all be kicked out of the Pokecentre. Running a hand through his hair, he faced Gary.

"Well, that could have gone better," he attempted to joke, groaning at the vacant expressions sent his way. "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't think it would be anything like_ that_."

"It's fine, Brock," Gary said. "He had to find out eventually. If anything, it's probably a good thing that he found out. It saves us the trouble of having to sugar-coat it later on."

"Are you serious?" Noticing the glare May was looking at him with, he shrugged.

"What? It's true," he stated. "The only problem is what to do now. Not to mention what Ash will do. He's in a pretty bad state."

"Gee, ya think?" May questioned, sarcasm laced heavily into her voice as her glare intensified.

Brock cleared his throat, causing everyone to look back at him. "Look, we can talk about this later. Despite what I said earlier, I'm going to talk to Ash. I'll call you later to let you know what's going on. Until then, don't do anything that will make him even more angry," he told them."

"Alright, but hurry," Gary replied, and the older male nodded. They all finished up their goodbyes, and Brock mentally prepared himself to face Ash. He walked out of the Pokemon Center, hoping that the younger boy wouldn't do anything rash.

Back in Kanto, everyone sat in silence. Nobody knew what to say, only that Gary's slip of the tongue had managed to make the situation both better and worse at the same time. Drew eventually stood up and moved away from the monitor, going back to his previous position on the couch.

"Now what?" he asked, and they all looked around at each other for an answer.

"You can all do what you want," Gary spoke up, standing as well. "Feel free to wander around the Lab, just don't leave. And no matter what, do _not_ answer the door. We have to keep a low profile. Until Brock calls back, I have...things to do. Don't come looking for me until he does."

With that, Gary excited the room, several sets of eyes trailing after him curiously.

* * *

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

Brock pounded his fist against the door repeatedly, determined not to give up until Ash let him in. The boy could be stubborn at times, he'd be the first to admit it, but after travelling with him for two years Brock had learned to push his patience to extremes.

He would stand here all day and night if he had to.

"Ash!" _Bang! Bang! Bang! _"I know you're in there. Answer the door!"

Silence.

"Ash! I'm not leaving until you open this door," Brock yelled. _Bang! Bang! Bang!_

Still no reply.

Brock stopped knocking, opting to stand out the front of the door as he pondered what to do next. What else could he do to get Ash's attention? Food, perhaps? No. That wouldn't do any good. The boy had just been informed that his best friend was in a possible life and death situation, he wouldn't be hungry.

He could always use one of his Pokemon to blast the door down...

Nah. That wouldn't go down well with the Pokemon Center, and the last thing they needed was attention. Plus, he didn't think that his insurance covered Pokemon Centre doors 2000 miles away from his home region. But other than that, what other options did he have? It's wasn't like Ash would just come around by himself.

"You're not leaving, are you?" Ash's quiet voice came through, and Brock sighed in relief.

Or maybe he would.

"No. Now open the door," Brock demanded, slightly surprised when he heard the latch click and the door swung open.

Ash didn't even look at him as the older male walked in, shutting the door behind him. Brock took a moment to survey the room, taking note of the messy state it was currently in. He knew that Ash wasn't exactly the most organised person, but really. This place was a disaster! There were clothes and items alike strewn out across both the bed and floor, and a bag lying open on the floor. It was half-packed with clothes, and it looked as though they'd just been thrown carelessly without any thought or effort gone into packing them. Wait... Suitcase?

"Ash, what are you doing?" Brock questioned, eyeing the boy who was now stuffing random items and clothing into his bag.

"Packing," Ash answered simply, not bothering to look up from his actions.

"I can see that," Brock replied, resisting the urge to role his eyes. "But why?"

This time Ash looked up at Brock like he had three heads. "For Kanto," he stated, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Kanto?

Brock's eyes widened. "Ash, slow down! Just take it easy and think things through first." Ash stopped packing, and sat on the bed. He looked up at Brock with defeated eyes, causing the older male to instantly feel sorry for the boy.

"What's there to think through, Brock? If it's private they want, then that's what they're going to get," Ash spoke determinedly.

Brock stared at him for a few moments, knowing that it would be difficult to get Ash to change his mind. But was he really hearing this correct? Ash was leaving Kalos, leaving to go back to Kanto. Under any normal circumstances, Brock would have been thrilled to hear those words. But this was different, and not just because of the situation.

If Ash left for Kanto, it meant pulling out of the Tournament.

"Please, just... don't act rashly. Calm down and go over this. You need time to think this through properly, Ash," Brock said carefully.

At that, Ash scowled. "There's nothing to think about. I've already made up my mind, and nothing you say is going to stop me."

"I was afraid you'd say that," Brock muttered, taking a seat on the bed in defeat. "Look, Ash, I know that Misty means a lot to you, but there is more at stake here."

Ash looked up at him curiously. "What do you mean?"

The Tournament? You've basically won it already, there aren't that many battles to go Ash. You really have a shot this time. Gary and the others are in Kanto, and they're already working on finding Misty. You can wait a few days un-"

"No." Ash's voice was harsh, and stern. It cut through Brock's sentence, leaving no room for any rebuttals. "I am _not _leaving my best friend in the hands of Team Rocket, Brock. There's no way I can take that chance, not even for the sake of the Tournament. There'll be other Leagues, sure, but there's only one Misty. I refuse to sit back and do nothing."

Brock looked at the ground, slightly ashamed of himself for not thinking of that. Misty was also _his_ best friend, not just Ash's. If he were in Ash's position right now, he'd probably do the same thing. No, he _would_ do the same thing. But even so, what could Ash do that Gary and the others couldn't? There were already several people at the Lab.

_Bang!_

The two males snapped their heads up in surprise as the door was suddenly slammed open at such a force Brock was sure it would leave a dent in the wall. Serena stood there, face flushed and eyeing them for a few moments before noticing the bag on the floor. Frowning, she looked from that to Ash.

Damn. Why hadn't he remembered to lock it?

"Ash, what are you doing?" she demanded, placing a hand on her hip and walking further into the room.

"Serena!" a distant cry from down the hall turned their attention back to the doorway, where Clemont ran through. He leaned against the door frame, panting heavily to get his breath back. "Brock...said...to...wait!"

Ignoring her companion, Serena looked back at Ash, waiting for him to answer her. Ash removed himself from the bed and went back to his packing, not caring about the looks he was receiving from both Serena and Clemont. Still seated on the bed, Brock watched on in worry. Chances were that they wouldn't take this well...

"I'm packing, what else does it look like?" he told her.

She narrowed her eyes. "I can see that. But_ why_?"

"Because I'm leaving," Ash replied, keeping his tone at a neutral level.

Both Clemont and Serena's eyes widened. Leaving? But the Tournament was almost over! He couldn't leave. Not now. There was absolutely no way that Ash could quit, no way that he _would_ quit, especially when he was so close to winning. What was going on around here?

"Leaving?" Clemont repeated, moving away from the doorway to stand next to Serena. The girl shook her head, raising a hand to rub against her temple. This was confusing. Ash was hardheaded and stubborn, but never acted this rash.

"Ash, what do you mean you're leaving? The Tournament is almost over!"

"I know that, Serena," Ash said back.

"Then why-"

"I've already talked it over with Brock, he tried to stop me as well. But this is my choice, and I'm going to do it. I'm fully aware of the repercussions," Ash cut her off, stuffing in one last item and zipping the bag up.

"You can't just drop out of the League!" Serena cried.

"You can't stop me." Ash grabbed his belongings and stormed past them, not bothering to shut the door on his way out. Serena stared after him, slightly hurt at the way he had talked to her. It had been like she wasn't even there! What was wrong with him? She wanted answers, and she wanted them now.

Turning to Brock, Serena ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "Brock...What the hell is going on? Why is Ash acting like this? And who on Earth is this Misty?"

Brock shrugged, looking up at her. It was obvious that this girl had feelings for Ash. Even in the short time that he'd been there, Brock had seen it. Despite how dense Ash was about romance and any form of relationship other than that of family, Brock was slightly surprised that Ash hadn't noticed. How could he have not?

Choosing his words carefully, he spoke, "Misty is Ash's best friend, and mine as well. We first traveled together back in Kanto, but there isn't any time to explain more. You heard what happened over the videophone. I tried to talk some sense into him, but Ash is incredibly stubborn. Especially when it comes to his friends. He won't change his mind."

Serena didn't say anything.

Clemont on the other hand, adjusted his glasses and shuffled a bit closer. "I'm afraid that I still don't understand."

Brock shook his head and stood up, beginning to walk out of the room. "That's all I can say right now, there isn't enough time and I still need to call Gary. Ash is going back to Kanto, and I'm going with him."

* * *

_"It went well, I take it?"_

The person nodded, grinning as they spoke, "Even better than expected. Those idiots don't suspect a thing."

"_Good. What about the others? What are their plans?_"

"They're on their way to Kanto as we speak," they informed them.

From the other end of the line, the person chuckled. _"Perfect. Things are working well to our advantage. Far more then we'd hoped, in any case."_

"Indeed they are. They're playing right into our hands. I'll keep you updated."

_"Keep a low profile, but be sure to inform me of everything that's going on. It's vital that you don't get caught if this is to be a success. We need to know every move they make."_

"Don't worry, I know. I've worked way too hard to let something like that get in the way. I won't let anything ruin this. Not now. This will not have been a waste, you can be certain of that," they assured them.

_"And you'd better hope it stays that way. Let me know when they arrive."_

The phone clicked, indicating that the person on the other end had hung up. The figure grinned; it all falling into place, everything was perfect. Nothing would stop them now. Misty Waterflower was going to pay, and so would anybody else that dared to get involved.

* * *

Gary locked the door behind him, careful to ensure that he was alone in the room. He pulled out his phone, dialing a number quickly and held the device to his ear as he waited anxiously for the response.

_"Mr. Oak,"_ a male voice finally came through, and Gary released the breath he'd been holding.

"Have you found anything?" he demanded quietly, watching underneath the door carefully in case anyone was to walk by.

_"A little, not much,"_ the male replied._ "Although the things I have gathered are quite interesting. They may be of more use to you than they are to me, though."_

Gary nodded. "When will you be here?"

There was a small pause. _"Soon. I have to stay out of sight. A few days at the least, but possibly a week or so. I'm not entirely sure."_

"There isn't any way you can get here sooner?" Gary questioned, slightly apprehensive.

There was a sigh from the other end before the man spoke, _"These things take time, Oak. The kind of work I do isn't easy. You're lucky that you're a friend. I wouldn't do this for just anyone, you know."_

"I understand," Gary said, although truthfully he'd been hoping things would go quicker. "Just come as quick as you can. I'm counting on you, Peter."

_"Rest assured that you can."_ There was another silence before Peter spoke again,_ "Do the others know?"_

Gary stiffened slightly. "Not yet," he admitted.

_"I see. They aren't going to be happy about this, Oak,"_ he warned.

"I know. But I'll do anything I can to get her back, it doesn't matter what it takes," Gary said firmly.

_"I'll be there as soon as possible,"_ Peter promised.

_To be continued..._

**For those of you wondering, nothing **_**indecent**_** is going to happen to Misty. Yes, I'm putting that in the nicest way possible. Any guesses as to who this mysterious 'Boss' is? ****The OC, Peter, belongs to ab918. More about him shall be revealed in time.**

**Don't forget to review what you thought. Check my profile for the next update.**

**\- Has anyone seen Sereph of the End? It's. Freaking. Awesome.**

**~Aureillia**


	6. - Tergiversation & Transportation -

**By order of their review, I would like to thank; Guest, Aaml mania, ab918, QUEENSPELLER67, , Jordan Max, schoolmouse33, sgtrinidad9, Pure Gamer, ChocoChipKitty, Espeonage Espeon, Ready To Flyxxx, Pikamisty, Lauren-Shauny, Artemis173, Not So Artsy Fartsy, K****icksAndKisses, Aquara0323 aND NyVi**** for their continued support :)**

_"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."_

_**Game Over**_

Chapter Five - Tergiversation &amp; Transportation -

The wind flowed gently through the atmosphere, creating a calming, light breeze. Among groups of countless others, two males sat quietly next to each other on the pier awaiting the arrival of their ferry. Wingull hovered above them, aimlessly drifting by on the gentle gusts of air. On occasion, one would swoop down onto the wooden boarding and pluck a stray chip or dive downward to the sea in hope of food.

"Are you sure about this, Ash?" Brock asked, at last breaking the silence between them.

Ash nodded, determination in his eyes. "Positive. I can't just leave her, Brock. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't participate in the Tournament knowing that she was in danger. If anything ever happened to Misty, I could never forgive myself. Especially not if I ignored it."

"Chu!" Pikachu squeaked out, fierceness in his own black eyes.

Brock chose not to reply, bopping his head slightly and looking off into the distance. He didn't want to point out the flaw in Ash's logic; something had already happened to Misty, and despite the fact that it pained him to admit it, it was only a matter of time until it got worse.

Being older than Ash, not to mention having a clearer head, Brock knew that things might not turn out the way they hoped. He'd gone through the endless possibilities. He wasn't an idiot. Contrary to popular belief, Ash wasn't either. But at this point in time the younger male wasn't able to think properly, and his mind was set on a one-track path. To Ash, the only option was to find Misty and bring her back.

Brock, on the other hand, had considered other aspects. He saw reality for what it was. Although he hated the thought of it, and no matter how much he willed for it not to come to pass, he knew for a fact that Team Rocket weren't people to wait around for very long. Not to mention the obvious fact that nobody even knew where to begin searching for them. He would go with Ash to Kanto. He would help as much as he could. For now, Brock would follow the boy until they ran out of options.

He didn't have it in his heart to tell him that the chances of finding Misty, let alone saving her, were slim to none.

"What's the plan once we get to Kanto?" Brock questioned, trying to escape the barrage of thoughts that never seemed to stop. He couldn't afford to be negative, not in front of Ash.

Ash scratched the back of his neck, a feat Brock had come to learn was something he did when embarrassed. "I really didn't have a plan," he confessed. "It was more of a 'I need to get to Kanto and find out what the heck is going on', kind of thing."

From his shoulder, Pikachu let out a disgruntled "Chaa..."; his own form of expressing his exasperation at how rash his beloved Trainer could be at times.

His other Pokemon had been reluctant and confused at to why their Trainer had suddenly packed up and walked away from something that meant so much to him. Something that they had all worked so hard for. None of them understood Ash's explantion except for Pikachu; he was, after all, the only one who had ever met Misty.

But they loved Ash and trusted his judgement. Although they had no clue who this girl was, they had understood enough to not question anything about her. If Ash wanted to leave the Tournament to look for her, they would accept it. She must have been extremely important, and they could feel through their own unique link with Ash that this 'Misty' shared a special bond with him, too.

More than anything they'd ever felt him feel for his other friends.

Brock nodded. "I figured as much," he said. Because Ash was predictable, and plans were never something he had gone by.

Like he'd predicted, Ash was running on a parallel mind. As long as he got to Kanto then that was all that mattered. Nothing else would get in the way, but the boy was clueless after they got there. Ash didn't know what he was doing. He was going off of instinct and fear, desperate to hear the truth from

Gary before fully believing it.

The question was, what would he do after that? Brock knew that Ash would stop at nothing, that much was certain. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do if it meant finding Misty, just like it would have been the same for any of his friends. But this case was different. Misty was different.

"I honestly don't know. Wing it, probably. That usually works out well," Ash guessed.

"Ash.. This isn't one of those times when you can just 'wing it'," Brock pointed out. "Team Rocket is no joke. The only reason you've been able to get away with doing what you do is either sheer, dumb luck, or because you were dealing with the trio of idiots. Plus, don't forget that you've always had help in those situations."

Ash glanced up at him, speaking, "I do have help. There's you and everyone in K-"

Brock cut him off, "That wasn't what I was getting at. Things aren't just going to fall into place like they usually do."

Ash sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I know. But what else can I say? It's not like I know what I'm doing. All I know is that I need to get to Kanto, and I need to find out exactly what's going on. After that... Well, we'll see what happens," Ash told him, looking out into the distance once again.

Only this time when he looked, the horizon was nowhere to be seen. A large boat blocked his view, and Ash had to restrain himself from jumping in surprise at it's sudden appearance. A loud, deep-toned horn rang through the air, signalling that it was time for passengers to board.

Ash immediately scrambled to his feet, startling Pikachu and almost tripping over his bag in the process. Brock stifled a laugh at his friend's actions, shaking his head in amusement. He got to his feet, grabbing his own bag and walking after Ash, who by now had already raced to the staircase that lead to the deck.

Turning around to get one final glimpse at the beautiful land that was Kalos, Brock suddenly noticed what appeared to be three oddly shaped black dots in the distance. He squinted to get a better view, and after a few moments those dots turned into blurs that looked as though they were racing towards the pier.

"Brock, are you coming?" Ash called out, crossing his arms and tapping his foot against the boardwalk impatiently. What was taking him so long? Brock had the tickets, which meant that Ash was unable to get on the boat until Brock decided to get his rear in gear and hurry up.

"Just a second!" Brock yelled back, rubbing his eyes to better clear his focus. He stared at the blurs once more, and could now make out the shape of three figures. Each was waving something in the air that he was unable to distinguish from where he was, but as they got closer Brock saw that there were two girls and one boy.

It was Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie, and in their hands were what seemed to be little rectangular pieces of paper.

Ferry tickets?

* * *

Gary rubbed his stinging eyes, knowing that he needed to sleep soon. He'd been awake for two days straight, sorting through paperwork and documents nonstop whilst trying to find anything at all that could help them locate Misty. Thus far, it'd been useless. Brock had called less than fifteen minutes after the group had hung up to let them know that him and Ash were on their way, which hadn't been surprising to hear.

What had been a surprise was the second call explaining that Ash's other travelling companions were coming with them.

While Gary didn't have anything against the other three, he wasn't entirely sure that bringing them along was such a good idea. He knew that he shouldn't judge before meeting them, and under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have. The situation at hand, however, was completely different to normal circumstances.

Yes, they may have been Ash's traveling companions, but how did that mean that Gary could trust them? They didn't know Misty. They didn't know Team Rocket. Well, he presumed the latter, anyway. Although not being aware of Team Rocket was a positive attribute, that didn't make it any better in the fact that none of them had ever met before, which meant that they couldn't be trusted. Not yet.

They would probably only end up getting in the way, and May did not look happy when she was informed that the other girl was coming. Sabrina, was it?

He didn't need any more distractions. Having Ash here was going to be enough, but thankfully the Cerulean Sisters had decided to go back to their hometown to avoid further suspicion. Gary had been more than thrilled to be rid of them, especially Daisy. Although, he had to admit that he was relieved that she hadn't gone into detail as to the real reason behind what happened in the forest that day.

It didn't occur to him at the time that their presence was about to be replaced by three more new people.

"How are you holding up?"

Gary looked up to see a girl with waist-length brown hair looking down at him, a cup of what looked like tea held delicately in her hands. Her eyes, a beautiful emerald green, gazed at him with concern. He hadn't even heard the door open, so Gary was a little more than surprised to see her standing there.

"Leaf. When did you get in here?" he asked, taking the cup gratefully from her outstretched hands and having a small sip. Yup, tea.

She smiled. He was never one to be overly observant, especially when immersed in research. Gary had always been that way; even as a small child.

"Only just now," Leaf told him, noticing his posture relax slightly. "But that doesn't answer my question."

Gary gave her a half-hearted smirk. While he may have been a researcher, she was always the observant one. No doubt she'd already answered that question herself. Still, he couldn't help the slumping of his shoulders. Nor could he prevent the sigh that escaped his lips.

"Okay, I guess," Gary answered truthfully. Just as he'd predicted, Leaf nodded. There was not one ounce of surprise on her face. "What about you?"

Leaf's expression went blank, and just like that he knew that it would be impossible to tell what she was thinking. Or feeling, for that matter. She shrugged. "As good as one can be in a situation like this, I suppose."

There it was. An answer, but not an answer.

That was the one thing he could never manage to crack about Leaf; how she felt. When she was happy, she'd let it show. But she'd never let anyone get too close. If she was anything other than happy, that same blank expression would set in. Once that had happened, you didn't have a chance of finding out what was on her mind. It was on of the many mysteries that Gary had tried persistently to crack about Leaf Green. Tried and failed.

Gary didn't know where Leaf had learned to master that look, nor could he figure how she was able to conceal her emotions with such ease. Perhaps it was growing up with himself that had taught her to do so? After all, he had been quite the little bugger back in the day. Dealing with his arrogant, pre-pubescent self couldn't have been pleasant. All of that had changed, now, of course. But Leaf hadn't.

If anything, she was more withdrawn. An aspect that had only seemed to increase after finding out the truth about where Misty had suddenly disappeared to. He had never understood the relationship between Leaf and Misty, but Gary also hadn't made it his business to find out. Handling one at a time was tricky enough, but both at once... They'd be an unstoppable force of nature, and Gary held no wish to have both his ego -via Leaf- and head -courtesy of Misty's mallet- reduced to nothing all at the same time.

Involving himself in those sorts of matters would probably end up with him in front of death's door. From what he'd gathered, they didn't really speak. But since Misty had been around the Lab a a lot he supposed they could have had their fair share of talks.

The only problem with that theory was that, Professor Oak aside, and possibly himself on the very rare occasion, Leaf didn't open up to anyone. Also, Misty wasn't exactly one for girly gossip.

"I take it you haven't found anything?" Leaf inquired, eyeing the stacks of paper spread across his desk.

Gary shook his head. "Nothing. I've been through everything here and have come up with _nothing_."

Leaf nodded at his bitter words, as though she had expected as much. "I thought so. Although, it's not like there's really much to connect her to the Lab in the first place."

He looked away, placing the cup on the desk and began organizing the askew papers as a distraction. Did she know?

She narrowed her eyes at him with suspicion, her previously worried features shifting to annoyance. "You're hiding something," Leaf accused.

Okay, so apparently she didn't know. Or did she, and just needed to hear it from him? Knowing Leaf, it could have been anything. She always had her ways of gaining information, regardless of how she acted when trying to get it. But she couldn't have known, nobody else could have. Not even Leaf. It was called a secret for a reason, so it was most likely that she just had her suspicions. But in all honesty, if one had been paying enough attention, Gary knew that the facts weren't hard to pick up.

Misty had been spending more time in the Lab than usual, going there on a regular basis rather than a couple of times a month. When she had used to give a polite nod and smile towards him, she now spent most of her time with him. Where she had once never given a second thought to Lab research, almost all of her time had been dedicated to working with him.

In hindsight, Gary admitted that there were more than a few conclusions that could have been drawn from those deductions, but only one was actual reality.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Gary replied, scooping up another mass of papers and stacking them into a neat pile.

"Oh, really?" Leaf spoke. It came out as a sarcastic question, and Gary knew that he had to keep his guard up. He swiveled in his chair to face her, but didn't display any emotion. Or at least he hoped he didn't, anyway.

"Yes. Really."

She smirked, and he knew he was in trouble. "Then who were you on the phone with earlier?" He froze. She'd heard him? Impossible! He'd kept a firm check on the door to make sure that nobody had walked by, and they didn't. That he was sure of. Leaf grinned, and knew that she'd caught him out. "Ah, guilty. Just as I thought."

Gary regained his composure, determined not to let her get the upper hand. Well, at least determined get back on even grounds with her. Leaf already had the upper hand. "You were listening in on the other phone?"

She laughed. "Of course not. Believe what you will, but I do respect privacy." He scoffed. "Mostly," she added.

"Then how else could you have known?" he pressed, "no one walked by that door. I made sure of it."

"I'm just not an idiot." She wasn't. He knew that. "Who said I had to walk past a door to hear a conversation?"

His eyes widened in realization. "You were hiding next to it!" Gary accused, and she shrugged.

"I can't help where I walk, Gary. It's not my fault if one of my colleagues is engaged in a shifty conversation and I happen to be next to the room at the time," Leaf defended, an innocence crossing her face.

"More like outside the door eavesdropping," he muttered.

"One of our friends has just vanished, Gary. You know that I usually wouldn't pry, but these are difficult times," Leaf said, a sudden edge clear in her voice. "Besides, yo-"

"Why do you care so much?" he suddenly blurted out, cutting her off in mid-sentence. For once, she seemed surprised. Leaf Green was at a loss for words. Almost as quickly as it had manifested, though, Leaf recovered her composure and plastered on that blank stare.

"What do you mean?" she questioned, and confusion appeared to be present among her features.

Gary frowned. He knew that the confusion was false. "Why do you care so much, anyway? About Misty. You barely even speak."

Leaf stayed silent for a few moments, and he knew that he'd caught her off guard. Normally, he would have been smirking his ass off at the accomplishment, but right now he just wanted answers. Gary hadn't even meant to say it, he'd just needed something to stop her from asking him anything. This, however, was interesting. Why _was_ she so interested in Misty?

"Misty and I have spoken on more than one occasion. She is at the Lab a lot, you know. You're not the only person she speaks to," Leaf replied smoothly. "She's my friend as well, and you're also not the only one affected by this."

It was a nice cover up, and quick thinking on her part. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to work on him.

"Now you're the one hiding something," Gary stated.

To his surprise, Leaf only flipped her hair and walked back towards to door. When she turned around, her vacant stare had disappeared, replaced by one that looked to be somewhere in between amused and haughty. Staring back at him with a semi-coy smile, she replied, "Aren't we all?"

* * *

"You!"

"It's a pleasure to see you again, Miss Waterflower."

The figure grinned, something akin to both triumph and malice present within his twisted features. Misty continued to stare at him in shock, unable to fully accept what was standing right in front of her. Eyes wide and mouth agape, the words caught in her throat as she struggled to comprehend just how much the depth of this situation had just increased. The man chuckled at her reaction, clearly pleased at the affect he had had. He took a few more steps closer, and the look in his eyes reminded her of a ratatta being hunted down by a spearow. As if she were his prey. In a way, Misty supposed that she was.

How did she get herself into this mess?

After watching her for a few moments longer, he finally opened his mouth as he spoke, "I expect that you're quite surprised to see me again. It's such a pity we had to meet like this."

Regaining her composure and forcing herself to push the string of questions that desperately wanted answering to the back of her mind, Misty pulled herself together and was able to put together a coherent sentence.

"W-what are you d-doing here?" she stuttered out, cursing herself at the fear evident in her voice. It was lame, but it was the best she could do considering the circumstances.

He gave another menacing smile. "I'm so pleased that you asked that, Miss Waterflower. Very pleased indeed. I am the brains behind this operation. Or, more frankly, half of the brains behind this operation. To put it simply: I've teamed up with Team Rocket in order to bring about a change to the Pokemon world."

Misty's eyes widened even further at his words. What he spoke of was impossible! Not about the change to the Pokemon world; She couldn't care less about that at this time. It couldn't be true. There was absolutely no chance that this could be happening. She had to be dreaming. He would never do something like this. Not that she knew him that well, but it was the principles. He'd taken an oath to protect both the people and the Pokemon world when he was sworn in, and collaborating with Team Rocket broke every syllable of that vow.

Every. Single. One.

"That it ridiculous! You can't be behind this! You're-

"The Champion of Kanto? Yes, I'm quite aware of that particular fact," Lance cut her off, his smile widening even further at her continually growing confusion.

"B-but Team Rocket were the ones who k-kidnapped me! You fight against them, not with them. You're the Pokemon Champion!" Misty argued, more trying to convince herself than him.

"Exactly. Who would ever suspect their beloved Pokemon Master to be involved in the kidnapping of Kanto's finest Gym Leader? Quite the cover, is it not?" Lance questioned back.

This could not be happening. Lance was the one who kidnapped her. _Lance_. The Pokemon Champion of both Kanto and Johto, the one who had vowed to protect it's people from Team Rocket. And now... He was plotting _against_ those same people? Had they brainwashed him?

Thoughts and questions swirling through her head, Misty opened her mouth once again to get out the only thing that she could, "I thought you despised Team Rocket. It was only a few years ago that you helped bring them down at the Lake of Rage!"

Once again, Lance grinned. He was obviously enjoying this, not the least bit concerned about what his actions meant. The G-Men were Kanto and Johto's elite means of protection, and Lance was their leader. Without them, the region would be done for should anyone attack. But what about the rest of the League? Surely they couldn't have played a part in this, too. The couldn't have. But Lance controlled the League, and he controlled the G-Men. Even if they were aware of this, he would be able to keep them away easily. If Lance was here, and the League was blind, then who was going to stop Team Rocket?

"Impressive memory, Misty. Although you of all people should know that time can change a person, no matter how small the frame may be. Objectives become different, ideals fade, and the way you perceive everything around you shifts," he told her, his voice gaining a bitter edge to it.

"I don't understand," Misty whispered, still unable to register that he was the one behind this.

Lance sighed, rather dramatically in her opinion, and stepped back. "You once wanted to be the greatest Water Pokemon Master in existence, correct?" He didn't bother addressing the surprised look on her face as to how he knew. "But you were forced to return to the Cerulean Gym. Your legacy prevented you from completing your goal."

She didn't respond, her confusion increasing with every word that he spoke. Naturally, Ash and Brock had known all of this. So had May and Drew. How did Lance, a man she had met on one occasion, know?

"Over time, your ambition faded. You became immersed in your role as the Gym Leader of Cerulean City, instead accepting your fate and letting go of your life's dream," Lance continued. "Ah, but you don't get where I'm going with this, do you?"

Once more, Misty remained silent. She didn't even shake her head at his question. Fear began to creep in, and she wondered just what any of this had to do with Team Rocket. The only ambitions and goals that they had was to cause misery and destruction, which was by far anything from her own.

"You grew to accept your new title, just as I grew to accept mine. I adjusted to being the Champion," he said, as if that suddenly explained everything.

"But you _wanted_ that title. You worked for it, trained day and night to earn the right to challenge the previous Champion," Misty pointed out.

"Perhaps," Lance admitted, nodding his head. But then his eyes grew dark. "But that, my dear, is where we differ. I grew unhappy with my position, and you learned to accept yours. I, on the other hand, started off elated but ended up unhappy."

He was not in any way explaining his point, and among the fear annoyance started to seep through to Misty. She hated being kept in the dark. Almost as much as she hated being weak. Right now, Lance was currently making her be both. Finally, the annoyance won.

"That doesn't explain anything!" Misty snapped. "What has my situation got to do with yours? So what if you don't want to be the Champion anymore? That has nothing to do with me. I didn't turn my back on the people who trusted me. You're a traitor!"

To her surprise, Lance didn't even flinch at her outburst. He stood there with blank expression, his eyes eerily empty as he looked on without displaying the slightest interest upon hearing her words. It was as if nothing even got through to him. It was as if he hadn't heard a word she'd said.

"I am no traitor, Miss Waterflower," was all Lance spoke, his tone matching his expression.

Fear now long gone, Misty frowned. What was wrong with him? Whatever Lance had experienced was obviously more to do with him being selfish and Team Rocket taking advantage of that state, but either way this was ridiculous. Being Misty, she wasn't about to say nothing. How could he stand before her and claim that he wasn't a traitor? He was working with the most notorious organisation of Kanto. He'd kidnapped her, for Mew's sake!

"Not a traitor?" She scoffed, ignoring the pain in her neck at having to keep it turned. "You're with Team Rocket, Lance. The number one most wanted organisation in not one, but _two_ regions. They care nothing for the citizens of Kanto or Johto, or have you forgotten everything that you've fought against for so long?"

"As I told you earlier; Ideals change," Lance repeated. His riddles and short replies were beginning to irritate her, and Misty had almost had enough.

"You're supposed to be the Pokemon Master!" Misty cried, now struggling in the straps binding her to the table. "Have your ideals really changed that much? Team Rocket's ideals are the complete opposite of everything you've ever believed in. They take Pokemon. They make people's lives miserable. They take advantage of everyone!"

"They opened my eyes," he simply replied.

"Opened your eyes? Team Rocket is a criminal organisation. Their sole purpose is to make lives despondent for both people and Pokemon! They steal, lie and cheat. How could they possibly have opened your eyes? What possible reason could you-"

"To how blind I was being!" Lance yelled, cutting her off mid-sentence. His once empty, lifeless eyes were now blazing and furious. The blank expression that had been seemingly chiseled to his face only moments ago was contorted in rage as he glared at her.

"All those years that I served as Pokemon Master, even during the time that I still do now, do you think that the people of Kanto truly appreciated me? No. How many times have I put my life on the line for their sake, Miss Waterflower? Can you tell me? Well, I for one have lost count. Now tell me this; How many of those people would be willing to do the same for me?" he seethed, coming so close that she could smell his rancid breath.

Misty didn't say anything, shocked at his sudden release of temper.

"Your silence tells me all that I need to know. I've been serving blindly, obeying to the peoples every whim. What do I get in return? Nothing. Sure, a few fancy dinners and a bouquet of flowers once a year, but what does that really mean?"

"The people love you, Lance," Misty said quietly. "They would be devastated if they found out what you were doing."

He scoffed, ignoring her words as he spoke, "I've been a fool, Team Rocket made me realize that. And now, with their help the people of Kanto will truly appreciate me. That is where you come in."

"I'm sorry?" Misty blinked a few times. What in the name of Mew did she have to do with any of this? If he started speaking about ideals again, she would truly be lost. At this, Lance's rage suddenly ceased to exist. The malice and grin were both back at full force, and he chuckled.

"All I need is _you_. You, Miss Waterflower, are the key to my goals," he told her.

"Me? How do I fit into any of this?" He had been saying it for a while, but she still didn't understand. What goals? Why_ her_? With every passing second the confusion and questions came flooding back, clogging her focus and adding to her temper.

"That, my dear Misty, will be revealed to you soon enough."

"What do you mean? What do you want from me?"

"Patience. Everything will be clear in due time. For the moment, however, I believe I have told you quite enough. Sweet dreams, Misty Waterflower."

With that, Lance spun on his boots and began walking away from her. The doors slid open and he looked over his shoulder at her one last time as the sound of air being released filled her ears. A green haze appeared before her, fogging her mind and making her lose focus. Misty's vision blurred, and the last thing she saw before passing out was the cloud of gas and Lance's figure as the doors slid shut once again.

* * *

The atmosphere was lively, music softly escaping the various speakers set up around the room. With the ferry softly rocking on the waves and the aroma of fresh seafood surrounding them, it was needless to say that everybody was having a pleasant evening aboard the ship to Kanto.

That is, all but one group of people.

Brock had attempted to make idle conversation, but aside from his input the group of five had remained awkwardly silent. Clemont, trying his best to desperately coax Bonnie into eating her plate of steamed lobster being the only other noise emanating from their table, and even that was oddly quiet. Ash had been overjoyed at their willingness to come along and support him, but other than that nobody had really spoken since boarding the ship. To them, the evening had been quite the opposite of pleasant.

Serena hadn't touched her food, and was staring at Ash with worry instead. He'd been picking at his plate for a while now, occasionally taking a nibble at a vegetable or stabbing a lettuce leaf. Brock, who'd noticed this unusual behavior, chose not to say anything. He continued to chew his meal slowly, avoiding any arguments and choosing his words carefully when he did speak.

Finally, Serena decided to say something.

"Ash, why aren't you eating? she asked him, concern filling her voice. Everyone at the table, bar Ash, stopped their current actions glanced between the two silently.

Ash, however, didn't answer. He appeared to not have even distinctly heard her speak, and continued to poke the fork around his plate, leaning his chin against the hand which wasn't holding said cutlery. Serena frowned, and Brock held his breath. This was about to go South.

Very South.

"Ash?" she repeated, a hint of annoyance now present. Once again, the boy didn't respond. He shoved a piece of chicken to the edge of his plate and frowned at a carrot that was revealed by doing so. Misty hated carrots.

_Carrots. Peppers. Bugs. _

"Ash!" Serena yelled, causing a couple of nearby patrons to look in their direction. Clemont eyed them awkwardly, attempting to shield his embarrassment by covering his face with a glass of water and taking a rather large gulp. Ash stopped glaring at the offending orange piece of food and glanced up at her, strangely unaffected by her outburst.

"Did you say something?" he questioned, voice uncharacteristically hollow and his usually bright eyes dull.

Serena's eyebrows furrowed momentarily, but it was quickly gone. "I asked why you weren't eating. I'm worried about you," she explained.

Ash sighed dropped his fork on the plate. "Sorry," he apologized. "I was just thinking." At his words, her eye visibly twitched. Brock and Clemont gave each other an uneasy glance, well aware that Serena's emotions were already high in the temperamental department.

"About Misty?" she remarked bitterly, and even Bonnie felt dread arise within her.

Ash on the other hand, wasn't in an observant mood, and failed to pick up on the tight expression on her face and irritated tone. "How can I be hungry when my best friend is in danger?"

"That's no excuse not to eat," Serena told him, unconsciously gripping her napkin. Ash raised an eyebrow at her, but she continued before he could reply, "just because your friend is in a little trouble, it doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice your own health."

Ash's relatively vacant features morphed to one of disbelief. "A_ little_ danger? How can you say that? Serena, she's been kidnapped by Team Rocket! How am I supposed to think about myself when every second that we're not in Kanto is another second wasted?"

"We're on our way to Kanto, aren't we? All I'm saying is that you could try and think about something else for a change," she argued, azure eyes burning with intensity.

Ash glared at her for a few moments longer before removing his napkin and standing up and saying, "You know what? I think I've lost my appetite." With that, he turned around and stalked away from the group, not even bothering to push his chair back in.

If the tension had been thick before, it was positively radiating by now. Brock was certain that if he'd stuck his knife out, a generous sized slice would be able to be produced from the atmosphere. Bonnie remained silent, staring after Ash with wide eyes and then back at Serena, not sure what to make of the sudden events.

Clemont, on the other hand, finally managed to let go of his anxiousness and sighed, causing Serena's now guilt-filled eyes to turn towards him. "You really should ease up on him, you know."

The honey-blonde looked down at her food in shame, knowing full well that she shouldn't have let her annoyance and emotions get the best of her.

"I know. I didn't mean what I said, I just..." she trailed off, still staring at her now cold plate of spaghetti. "I just don't get what's so special about this Misty girl."

Nobody looked surprised, and it was probably a good thing that Serena wasn't currently paying attention to any of them. Even Brock, ever the voice of reason, had no idea what he could say at this particular moment. He didn't want to interject himself into this anymore than need be, and Serena's feelings for Ash were obviously putting her on edge more than the rest of the group. She was already close enough to slipping as it is, and probably wouldn't appreciate him lecturing her.

Surprisingly, it was Clemont that continued speaking. He adjusted his glasses before saying, "I understand that you're upset, Serena, but you need to be a little more considerate of Ash. If your best friend had been abducted by a notorious criminal organisation and you had no idea where they where you'd be pretty inconsolable."

Serena didn't say anything more against him, feeling ashamed and resentful all at once. She continued to eye the tablecloth, avoiding every one of their looks of pity. After what felt like an eternity to the other members at the table, she finally glanced up and stared at Brock with a determined gaze.

"Brock, tell me about Misty," Serena demanded quietly.

The older male looked at her in surprise for several moments, before his lips curled upward and his features softened. "What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Everything," Serena answered immediately. "How you met. How her and Ash met. Where you traveled, what you did... Just everything."

For the first time in weeks, Brock allowed himself to smile a true, genuine smile as he began to recount the tale of his adolescent years. He left no detail out, going from start to finish without any interruptions from the his three mesmerized companions whilst they listened intently to the adventure that had changed his life forever.

_To be continued..._

**I know that Serena has been pretty... Well, bitchy in the previous chapters, but her attitude will change. Put yourself in her position: The boy she likes is fretting over another girl, Brock suddenly drops in and, in her eyes, takes all of Ash's remaining attention, everyone in Kanto knows more than she does, and she's just sort of tagging along for the ride.**

**Also, I have a question for you. I've already planned it out so this probably won't change my mind unless the number is pretty damn significant, but who do you prefer Serena with; Clemont, or Calem? **

**Don't forget to review what you thought!**

**~Aureillia**


	7. - Formation & Frustration -

**Thank you for all the suggestions and advice. And we've hit 100 reviews! You guys are amazing.**

**By order of their review, I would like to thank Artemis173, Mini Misty, JordanMax, , Schoolmouse33, Guest, QUEENSPELLER67, Cutiepiepo2, Guest, PokeshippingFAB, PichutheMadHatter, Nymph Vixen, Ready To Flyxxx, Guest, Pokeshipping-Bae, and Guest for their continued support.**

_"The starting point of all achievement is desire."_

**_Game Over_**

_Chapter Six - Formation &amp; Frustration -_

By the time Brock had finished, everybody else at the table was completely in awe. The experiences that Ash, Misty, and Brock had gone through were downright incredible. Not even in their wildest dreams would the Kalosian trio have been able to manifest something that seemed to be plucked straight out of a story book.

"Wow," Bonnie breathed, eyes twinkling with excitement and wonder.

"It_ is _quite amazing," Clemont agreed.

Serena didn't speak a word. Not because she was blown away by Brock's tales, no. She didn't find him hard to believe in the slightest, albeit the fact that she had to admit the stories were impressive. No wonder Ash had been so eager to go off with Brock all of the time. No wonder he had been so willing to drop everything just to rescue Misty, even though they had nothing to go on.

No wonder he'd gotten so angry when she persisted to question his actions.

The three had a connection that she never would, a bond that was both impossible for her to break nor come between. It didn't matter that she had technically known Ash for longer than anybody else. A bond like that was unbreakable. Irreplaceable. Serena stood no chance at ever developing something like that with Ash, and the realization came crashing down painfully.

Her grip on the napkin unknowingly tightened.

"Yeah. It really was," Brock said quietly, still smiling at the nostalgia and cherished memories. "They would argue more than I had ever seen two people do, which is saying a lot. I live withnine younger brothers and sisters; you'd think it would be impossible to discover someone who could bicker any more than they could."

"But even so, Misty always believed in Ash no matter what, right?" Bonnie asked eagerly, leaning over the table in anticipation. "She'd push him to do his best?"

Serena felt nauseous. Great, now even Bonnie was finding their relationship adorable.

Brock nodded. "That's right. Their arguments were always just a way for them to release their emotions. Misty and Ash really do care for one another, it's just a little difficult to see."

Clemont bopped his head slowly. "I think Ash quitting his life goal to come find her proves that point. It sounds like true friendship."

Friendship.

How Serena wished it was that simple. To her, it sounded like a whole lot more than just_ friendship_.

She didn't know how much more of this she could handle. It was childish, she was well aware of that. But even so, she couldn't help but react at the uneasiness that flowed through her at their words. Did Ash really have feelings for this girl? Did she feel the same way for him in return? Was she overreacting, making a mountain out of a molehill due to the fact that her interpretation of their words made it seem like something more? Or was it because she was still desperately struggling to deny it?

It was suddenly extremely stuffy in the room, and Serena was beginning to find that breathing required much more effort than it really should. Since when was something such as air so complicated to keep track of? The atmosphere felt muggy and humid, and hot flushes were constantly racing through her body. No sound made was registered in her mind but their voices, their conversation riddled with Ash and Misty and all of the amazing times that they'd spent together.

Adventures. Memories. Feelings.

Ones that she would never be able to compete with.

"So what happened?" Bonnie inquired, eager to hear how two people so close could have drifted so far apart.

Brock's face immediately fell as the undesired memory was brought up. His grin faded, a solemn expression appearing in its place. He could remember everything about that day. It instantly replayed in his mind, spinning the vivid image of the three parting ways clear as crystal. That had been the beginning of the end. Ash had seen Misty only three times after that; One planned, one a coincidence, one a surprise from her. After that, the two had completely lost contact. If only things had gone differently...

Perhaps if they had, Misty wouldn't be in this mess.

"It was about three years after we'd begun travelling together. I had to leave at one point, but by then I had returned. Misty never left, not once. Not even when she was given the opportunity to further her own dream. We were at the Viridian Pokemon Centre when the phone call came through," Brock explained, so wrapped up in his own memories that he didn't even react to Nurse Joy being mentioned, "it was from her sisters. They had won some cruise that would last for a year and needed Misty back at the Gym to take care of everything. She didn't have a choice."

Bonnie frowned. "Why couldn't she just go back to travelling once her sisters came back?"

"Misty's sisters... Well, let's just say that they're not the most reliable people. There was no way that she could leave the Gym in their hands. Besides, she had an obligation," Brock told her. "They saw each other a couple of times after that, which is how Misty came to meet May, but that was it."

Duty really was a fickle thing, after all.

Clemont nodded, understanding how Misty would have felt due to being a Gym Leader himself. He adjusted his glasses before speaking, "Why didn't they just keep in touch?"

At this, Brock managed a small laugh, earning confused looks from the siblings. "Those two are the most stubborn pair I have ever met. Ash has his reasons, and being the one to contact him would put Misty's pride in peril. That's the reason we organised this surprise in the first place."

Serena frowned. Pride? Misty let something as pitiful as _pride_ get in her way? This was unbelievable. Ash was giving up everything for a girl who had never even called for the chance of getting a wounded ego. In what reality was that reasonable? She wasn't sure why Ash had never been the one to initiate anything, but Brock claimed that he had his reasons. Surely it must have been more than the sake of his pride, right?

It didn't seem like a risk worth taking. Not in her eyes, anyway.

Clemont and Bonnie opened their mouths to say something, only to be cut off by Brock, "Anyway, it's getting late. I'm sure you'll hear plenty more about Misty soon enough. Until then we should all turn in for the night. Mew knows how long it'll be until we'll have the opportunity to get a decent sleep."

Serena instantly snapped her head up, nodding at his notion. "I'm going outside to get some air. Bonnie, I'll meet you back in our room later."

"But, Serena-" Bonnie started, but stopped as the screeching of Serena's chair broke through her words.

They watched her retreating figure with worry for a few moments, only now picking up on the fact that she had barely said a word throughout the entire conversation. None of them noticed the napkin, once firm and crisp, now crumpled and thrown carelessly into her leftover food. Finally, Clemont sighed and stood up, fully intending on following after Serena until an arm was put in front of him. Looking over at Brock in confusion, fully ready to protest and question the strange action until Brock shook his head.

"I'll go," Brock announced, not giving Clemont the chance to argue.

* * *

"Serena."

She whipped around in surprise at the sound of her name, the emotion only doubling at who was standing there. "Brock..." Serena trailed off, unable to hide her surprise. "What are you doing out here?"

He gave her a small smile. "Just thought I'd check up on you. Is something wrong?"

Serena's face drooped slightly at remembering the reason she'd come outside in the first place. She turned back around to face the railing, eyes once more training on the sea.

"No, nothing," she replied quietly, hoping that he would take the excuse and leave. Fate, however, wasn't on her side.

Brock sighed, knowing that he'd need to try a different tactic. If she wasn't going to open up willingly, he would push her to do so. "Do you mind if I join you, then?"

Serena turned back around instantly, hair swooshing around as she did so. The words spilled out before she had the chance to think about them, "Why?"

He allowed another smile to grace his lips. Walking over to the railing, Brock leaned against it and took a deep breath. He didn't look at her, but she kept her confused gaze fixated on him.

"The ocean is very calming. Wouldn't you say so?" Brock eventually said.

Serena hesitantly faced the railing once more, but didn't break eye contact with the side of his face. What was he doing? When she didn't answer, he shifted his head enough to glance at her.

"I'm not stupid, Serena."

She gulped, lifting a shaky hand forwards to clutch onto the railing like it was a lifeline. Serena knew that he wasn't stupid. She also knew that out of all of her current travelling companions, Brock would also be the most likely to understand the predicament she was currently in. But with those positives also came the negatives, such as the fact that Brock was also Ash's close friend. He was _Misty's_ close friend. How could she possibly disclose the secret kept guarded to her heart to somebody she'd just met? How could she possibly let out something that would no doubt come back to-

"You like him." The bluntness of his tone almost sent her toppling over.

He wasn't stupid, and she knew that. She just never expected him to be so_ forward_.

Serena's cheeks instantly coloured, mouth dropping open and eyes widening with both terror and shock. The hand grasping the railing tightened instinctively, somehow seeming like it could save her. She almost choked on the very air as she struggled to regulate breathing, defence mechanism kicking in to _deny, deny, deny_.

"I... You, but- N-no! I m-mean I d-don't..." Serena stuttered, desperately struggling to gain control of her emotions and form a coherent thought let alone sentence. "A-Ash is just a f-friend!"

Yet again, Brock smiled. This time, though, there was a lingering sadness in his eyes. "I never said anything about Ash, Serena."

She froze, instantly realizing her mistake. Serena began to turn pale, her increasing blush contrasting greatly against the sheer white the rest of her face was now heading towards. She opened her mouth to speak, to protest, to deny, to _anything_, but found her throat to be dry and any words refusing to come out.

To her- ever growing -surprise, Brock's smile only widened, and understanding flittered across his features. "You have nothing to worry about. I won't say anything.

Serena swallowed thickly. Finally, she managed to get something out, "W-why?"

"It's not my place to interfere. I may be one of Ash's oldest friends, but what right does that give me to get involved with his love life? Or yours, for that matter," Brock asked back, directing his gaze back to the ocean. "Besides, what you choose to do with your feelings is up to you, not me."

She gave a small nod, still frozen in place. How could she have reacted so... so _obvious_?

"How did you know?" Serena whispered. It was extremely quiet, but he heard it anyway.

He chuckled. "When you've been around as many hormone-riddled teenagers as I have, you learn to pick up on more than a few things.

Serena didn't say anything, inwardly berating herself for acting so stupid. Yet, for some reason, she felt as though she could trust Brock. Call it silly, but she really did believe him when he said that he wouldn't get involved. This only caused her confusion to rise, however, now that she was able to think somewhat clearly.

"Did you come out here just to tell me that?" she questioned.

Brock shook his head. "No, that was just a means of getting you to admit it." She narrowed her eyes, and he gave her an apologetic expression. "I'm not going to use it against you, please don't think ill of my intentions. Although I do have an ulterior motive."

She didn't blink, raising an eyebrow at him curiously. "And that would be?"

"It's nothing bad, so please don't take this as some sort of bribe. I want to become closer with the three of you," Brock explained, holding back a laugh at her increasing confusion. "Almost all of Ash's travelling companions have been acquainted with me at some point or another. As Ash's adoptive older brother, I view his close friends as a sort of family."

Serena was shocked, to say the least. And guilty. She felt extremely guilty. This man, the one whom merely hours ago she had been jealous and suspicious of, wanted to go out of his way to make them feel comfortable. It wasn't something that he had to do, and it wasn't out of duty to Ash, either. Maybe it was his words, maybe it was the fact that he now knew her deepest secret, or maybe she was just so sick of holding it in and right now she just had to let it out or she would simply _burst_ and-

"You can talk to me, Serena. I know that we haven't known each other for very long, and this has been a shaky start, but I'll listen if you want somebody to lean on," Brock continued, "holding in feelings for an extended period of time takes it's toll, you know, and I promise that anything said will stay strictly between us.

"Why are you doing this?" Serena questioned back, still feeling as though she was being spun in circles. Her emotions were currently spinning out of control, flying all over the place and on a roller-coaster all at once.

He only smiled. "Because Ash is my friend, and you mean a lot to him. I'd really like to become friends with the three of you, as well.

"And how am I supposed to know that you won't use my feelings against me?" she demanded, suddenly drawing back on defence.

"You don't. But if I did want something from you, I'd have already asked it. It's not my place to spill somebody else's secrets. I just want to help," Brock told her sincerely. "I already know that it's about Ash, so-"

"It's not about Ash," Serena cut him off. He raised his eyebrows in protest before she quickly continued, "I mean, it sort of is. Well, in a way it has everything to do with him."

"I'm afraid I don't follow," Brock replied.

She sighed, her grip on the railing loosening slightly. "Well, it's sort of about him. But not really, at the same time. It's not so much to do with Ash as... Misty."

"Ah." He continued to stare at her, but there was no surprised tone in his voice, and nothing that gave any indication that this piece of information came off as strange to him written on his face. Serena felt another flush race through her body. Perhaps she really should learn to be a little more discreet about her feelings...

Maybe she'd also been a tad too forward with her opinions.

"You're worried about her place in Ash's life," Brock stated bluntly.

All she could do was nod. There was no point in hiding anything; Brock had already unearthed her most closely kept secret. They'd come this far, Serena reasoned, so why bother denying it? Of course, that didn't mean that she was comfortable in any way discussing the matter, but Brock was the only person to even seem to care. Even though she'd only known him for a short period of time, it felt nice to allow the weight to be lifted.

"They were pretty close," Serena said.

"They've been friends for a long time," he told her. "Anyone would be."

At that, Serena felt another piece of her shatter. Ash and herself had been friends first. She'd known him long before any of these people, long before Misty had even known his name. And yet she still couldn't say that Ash cared about her as much as he did for Misty, or any of those outside the Kalos trio, for that matter. Why was it that even though she was the one who befriended him, cared for him, gained_ feelings_ for him, that she was never the one he had given a second thought about?

She winced. "Ash and I were friends years before Misty ever was," Serena told him quietly. "She left him, and so did I. But he never remembered me the way he remembers her."

"Serena-"

"If Ash hadn't of come to Kalos, he wouldn't have even known who I was," she remarked bitterly.

Brock remained silent for a few moments. "That doesn't mean that Ash doesn't care about you."

"It's not the same thing, though, and you know it," Serena said. "He likes her, doesn't he?"

"I don't know," Brock answered honestly. In all fairness, he wasn't lying. Ash's actions spoke for themselves, but Brock had never received an outright confession from the boy. "Ash isn't exactly the easiest person to depict love to. If he does, then I have no doubt that even he doesn't understand his feelings properly."

This time, Serena was the one who did not speak a word.

"Serena, Ash will always care about you. He'll always be your friend no matter what, just remember that... even if he is unable to return your feelings," he said.

"It just seems so unfair," Serena whispered. "This... situation is so different to what it would be if I was in Misty's place. If he'd never seen me in person again, and then saw that I was the one to be held hostage by Team Rocket on the news, he wouldn't have remembered," she muttered. "And even if he did, he wouldn't have bothered trying to rescue me. Ash would never have gone to the lengths he is now."

"Maybe so," Brock began slowly, carefully, "but if you were in Misty's place right now, Ash would also do whatever he could to help you."

Serena managed a bitter laugh. "He'd also be incredibly relieved that it was me and not her." He opened his mouth to deny this statement, but she cut him off, "and he wouldn't react the way he is now."

"Ash-"

"I won't give up on him, though," she announced, staring Brock dead in the eye.

For once, Brock was unable to hide his surprise. He'd certainly not been expecting that. Judging from the look in Serena's eyes, it was a reaction she'd expected. Brock didn't break their eye contact as he watched her unblinkingly, waiting for more words to be spoken. None were, however, and it seemed as though Serena had no intention to back up her statement. There was a fierce determination in her eyes, and he wasn't going to attempt talking her out of it.

It wasn't his place, after all, and it was better to just let it all unfold on its own.

If this was Serena's decision, then he would accept it and involve himself no further. Brock held no further motive than to be a vessel and a shoulder to lean on.

"We should probably go back inside," he finally spoke. "The others will be getting worried, and it's late."

Serena nodded, and with that, a new understanding was formed between them.

* * *

Unbeknownst to the two unsuspecting figures below, Clemont and Bonnie stood above the deck on the next level's platform. They'd seen the whole exchange, listened to every word with unbroken focus. Both were more than a little surprised at how easily Serena had managed to let the words flow, and yet not fazed by her confession at the same time.

What bothered Clemont the most, though, was that she'd found Brock the suitable one to speak those feelings to. In her position, he admitted, he probably would have done the same thing. That didn't make it sting any less, though. Didn't she trust them? Didn't she trust_ him_? Why Brock, who they'd barely known for more than a few days?

He knew that Serena liked Ash. He had known for a long time, and if Serena wasn't already aware of the fact herself then he definitely would have been the first to notice. He _always_ noticed. It honestly wasn't surprising that Brock had been able to pick up on it as quick as he did; Ash was just an idiot, plain and simple. But that only made it worse. All of these thoughts swirled around in Clemont's head, and he barely registered Bonnie tugging at his sleeve until the snapping of her fingers in his face caught his attention.

"Earth to Clemont, wake up!" she yelled, a frown forming on her previously passive features.

Clemont shook his head slightly, attempting to remove the jumbled thoughts from his mind. "Sorry, Bonnie. I was just thinking."

Her expression turned solemn once more as Bonnie looked down to where Brock and Serena were only moments ago. "It's sad, isn't it? Poor Serena..."

He only nodded.

"Do you think there's anything that we can do?" Bonnie asked hopefully.

Clemont sighed. "I think it's better that we stay out of this." Her face fell. "It is Serena's decision, after all. From what we've seen thus far, Ash really cares for and holds deep feelings for this Misty. Feelings that deep are rooted in place and aren't able to be removed. Even if there was something that we could do, we don't have any right to meddle."

The guilt at how reassuring his words sounded to himself made no hesitation to show itself, and Clemont was glad that Bonnie was both to young and occupied to really look any deeper.

"But what about Serena's feelings?" Bonnie demanded. "They matter, too!"

"Of course Serena's feelings matter, Bonnie. I never said they didn't. But we can't change anything, and neither can she. Ultimately, it's up to Ash," Clemont pointed out, and once again Bonnie frowned.

"I know," she said quietly, shuffling a foot against the deck. "I just don't like seeing her so upset."

_'I don't either,'_ Clemont thought, but said nothing.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Bonnie asked, and he managed a small smile.

"I don't know, Bonnie, I really don't," he admitted. "But no matter what Serena says, she's unpredictable. Emotions can be uncontrollable, and I'm worried that it's only a matter of time before she snaps."

* * *

Leaf sighed for the umpteenth time, tossing yet another useless report aside. Biting her lip, she picked up the closest cream-coloured folder and began to flit through it. She'd been at this for hours and thus far hadn't made any progress, so the growing frustration of achieving nothing was slowly beginning to get on her nerves. The silence enveloping her was welcoming, though; no distractions were needed. Gary had been in to check on her once or twice, but exited rather quickly when Leaf had made it clear that she didn't need him to break her focus. The cup of coffee he'd left for her had long since gone stone cold.

Just as she flipped the page, the door gave a resounding creak and light filled the room. Leaf furrowed her brows, not bothering to look up as she quipped, "Gary, I thought I told you that I needed to be alone. This is important."

Footsteps echoed throughout the room, and Leaf gritted her teeth. Honestly, he could be so stubborn sometimes. Almost as stubborn as her, she'd admit, which was probably her fault in some aspect. But he was definitely hard-headed.

"Gary," she said, her tone authoritative and warning.

"Wrong Oak, Leaf."

Leaf's eyes widened as she spun around, the folder falling to the floor without a second thought. "Professor! I-"

The old man merely chuckled, waving a hand at her dismissively. "There's no need to apologize, Leaf." She visibly relaxed. "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

Leaf allowed a small smile. The Professor, aside from Gary, was probably her second most closest companion. He had raised her, after all, and she trusted him with her life. But then she remembered the reason for her currently being in the room in the first place, and the smile disappeared.

"As good as one can be in this situation, I suppose," Leaf replied, clasping her hands together in front of her.

Professor Oak nodded, all too understanding. "It must be hard on you, given the... circumstances."

She held back a wince. Leaf had no desire to steer the conversation in that particular direction.

"I'm dealing with it," she answered. "Thank you for your concern, Professor, but I really must be getting back to my research."

His eyes flickered down to where the manilla folder was resting at her feet. He frowned slightly, and Leaf unconsciously lifted a foot to shift the folder closer to her. She knew that the Professor wouldn't approve of her actions, despite being aware of exactly why she was doing it.

"Leaf," he began sternly, setting his gaze back on her, "We both know that the research you're doing is far from what this facility is for. This isn't healthy. I know that you want to do all you can, but believe me when I say that it isn't in your best interest to make yourself a part of this."

She was the one to frown, this time. "I _am_ a part of this. There isn't an option, Professor."

"No, Leaf, you're not. You aren't Misty," he said gently.

"I swore that I would do all I could to protect her, and no-"

"And I made a promise to protect _you_. Right now, you are protecting her right now by staying out of it," Professor Oak cut in, earning a confused look from her. "What do you think will happen if they find out, Leaf?"

Leaf remained silent, absorbing the information.

"I know how much this must mean to you," he continued softly, "how much _she_ means to you. But please, for all of our sakes, stay out of this. Don't involve yourself. This is already complicated enough."

* * *

_"We have now arrived in Viridian City. All passengers please make their way to the main platform with their luggage. All belongings left behind will be thrown away and any items found will be donated to Pokemon Centres. We depart in exactly two hours for Kalos."_

Ash tapped his foot impatiently, Pikachu in his usual position of his shoulder as they both waited for their friends to gather their belongings and get down to the deck. Anticipation coursed through Ash's body at the thought of being so close and yet so far at the same time. Even thoughts of tasting his mother's cooking had not made a single appearance. He'd been standing in the same spot for the past twenty minutes, and now that the announcement had finally been made, he wanted nothing more than to get _going already_.

After what seemed like an eternity, Ash spotted Brock within the swarm of countless others crowding around the exit.

"Brock, over here!" Ash yelled out at the top of his lungs, earning the attention of several others around him.

Brock looked around at the mention of his name, colour flooding to his cheeks at the glares being sent his way. Ash could be so embarrassing at times... He ambled his way over to the younger boy, who looked about ready to fly off the boat at any moments notice.

"Finally!" Ash cried, flailing his arms around and startling a now very distressed Pikachu. "We've been waiting_ forever_. Where are the others?" he added upon noticing the absence of his other three companions.

The older male shrugged, looking back over his shoulder for any sign of the aforementioned people. "I'm not sure. Serena said something about a 'Clembot', whatever that is."

Ash groaned, running a hand through his hair in annoyance. If Clembot had made another..._ appearance_, then he'd probably be waiting a lot longer than preferable. It was already a two day journey from here to Pallet town, and he wished to waste no more time than necessary, especially seeing as it was already well past lunch time. At this rate, they wouldn't arrive for another whole day.

In Ash's eyes, that was unacceptable.

"So who's there, anyway?" Ash questioned after several more moments of loathing.

Brock stopped his watch for the others to look back at him, tapping his chin whilst trying to remember what Gary had told him. "Well, Misty's sisters have already left, so probably just Gary and Tracy. Professor Oak, obviously, but I doubt he'll involve himself too much. Oh, May and Drew as well."

Ash nodded, feeling at least a little more content. The less people there, the better. With the addition of his Kalos friends, despite his appreciation of their willingness to help, it was going to complicate matters. It'd be easier if there was an even amount of people, but that couldn't be helped. He only hoped that by now they had managed to find a lead.

A loud shout brought his attention back to the present, and the two boys gazed up with raised eyebrows to see Serena, Clemont and Bonnie pushing their way through the crowd.

"Sorry! Pardon me, coming throu- ouch! Clemont, that was my toe!"

"Sorry, Serena," Clemont apologized, looking rather dishevelled. His glasses were crooked and his skin seemed to be etched with scorch marks. Ash held back a sigh; Definitely Clembot.

Bonnie eyed her surroundings, breaking into a grin as she caught sight of the people she'd been looking for. "There they are!" she cried.

Clemont and Serena followed the direction her finger was pointed in, both breathing sighs of relief. The trio continued their struggle through the flow of passengers, repeatedly shouting out 'sorry' and 'excuse me' to those that were unfortunate enough to get caught up in their path. Upon reaching Ash and Brock, all three hunched over, out of breath.

"About time," Ash muttered, Pikachu nodding in agreement.

"Sorry," Serena said for what must have been at least the twentieth time that hour. "We had a minor setback with Clembot, and-"

"Yeah, yeah, I got that much," Ash cut her off, casting a glare at Clemont. "Now come on! We've already wasted enough time here, gotta get moving if we wanna' make it to Pallet Town."

Serena tilted her head. "We're not staying here for a bit?"

He looked at her like she'd just sprouted another head. "Stay here? What gave you that ridiculous idea? We have things to do and places to be. There's no room on the agenda for pit stops."

"Ash," she began, placing both hands on her hips, "we've just arrived in Kanto after a long boat journey from _Kalos_. I know you're in a hurry to reach the lab, but slow down. We need to rest first. Besides, I wanted to take a look around Viridian before we set off."

Ash stared at her in disbelief. "Rest? You've had the entire boat ride to do that! Anyway, we don't have time to hang around."

Clemont stepped forward, hoping to avoid another argument. "Serena's right, Ash. We need to take it easy. It won't hurt to spend a little time here. Bonnie, Serena, and myself have never been to Kanto before, and we were all hoping to explore a little."

"This is _not _a vacation," Ash spat.

"Do you think that it's possible to save this conversation for when we get off the boat?" Brock interjected, motioning to the annoyed stares being sent their way by the boat crew. "But I also agree with them. It wouldn't do any harm to rest for a while.

"There isn't enough time to go gallivanting around town!" Ash snapped, and the four continued to look at him with blank expressions.

"Pikapi..."

"Fine, whatever." Ash grabbed his bag, turning away from them and looking back over his shoulder to say, "Do what you want. I don't care, but I have a job to do. You can either stay here and catch up later or come now, but I'm not staying here any longer."

With that, he marched over to the now empty exit and disappeared. He picked up his own bag, and three glanced up at him. Sending apologizing glances their way, he began to follow Ash. They remained still and silent for a few moments longer, before Bonnie knelt down to pick up her own belongings. Clemont sighed, motioning for Serena to do the same, and started for the exit.

They were here for a reason, after all...

* * *

If they'd thought Ash was being unreasonable back on the ship, then he was being downright impossible now.

After choosing to go with Ash instead of walk around Viridian, much to Serena's chagrin, he had continued to march them relentlessly through the forest without a word. Generally, Ash was hopeless with directions. But at this point the remainder of the group were having a rather difficult time keeping up him. Brock had constantly sworn to himself that there was no possible way Ash could have remembered the route back so easily, and must have studied a map or something for hours to go this fast.

Thus far, they'd been forced to hike without even so much as a small stop. Lunch foregone, Ash traipsed through the seemingly endless trees at a much faster pace than any of them were used to. By this point, all of them were hungry, exhausted, and needless to say quite testy. However, nobody said anything for the fear of Ash exploding. With nerves one meagre touch away from breaking point, even Brock had decided to just keep his mouth shut for the time being.

He'd already offered to make lunch earlier, which had only earned him a scathing look from Ash that extinguished the hope in everyone else's eyes. However, seeing the way Bonnie, a member much younger than themselves dragging her feet and struggling to keep her head up, Serena decided that she'd had enough.

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous. We _need_ a break," she stated firmly, tired eyes daring Ash to challenge her. She knew that he'd probably end up snapping again, but it was a risk she'd have to take.

Ash spun around on his heels, almost sending Pikachu flying off of his shoulder. The glare he sent her could almost rival aferaligatr, but she didn't back down. "Serena, we've been through this. No breaks."

"Ash, you're being totally unreasonable!" she cried, motioning to where Bonnie and Clemont were heavily panting. "Take a look around you. Clemont is having trouble, I'm almost on the verge of collapsing, and Bonnie is about to pass out. Even _Brock_ is struggling."

Ash glanced around at each of his friends, a look of guilt flashing across his face for the briefest of moments before his features hardened once more, and he repeated, "No breaks."

Pikachu squeaked out something incomprehensible to the rest of them, waving his little paw around with a frown on his face.

"I agree with Serena, Ash," Clemont managed in a small voice, not looking him directly in the eye. "Bonnie can't go any further, and the rest of us won't be able to walk much longer, either."

"What is this, a mutiny?" Ash muttered.

"They're right," Brock spoke up, crossing his arms. "We know that you're in a rush to get to Pallet Town, but what you ask isn't possible. Going on without a single stop isn't beneficial." Ash opened his mouth to protest, but Brock cut him off once more, "you won't be able to help Misty if you're sleep deprived and starved, Ash. You're not going to be of any if you're half dead."

Ash's eyes flashed dangerously, but his defensive stance dropped. Pikachu grinned and hopped down from his shoulder, happily squealing at the thought of finally getting to taste his precious ketchup. Brock let out a small sigh, relieved that there wasn't going to be any further argument on the matter. The other three seemed to get the message, too, because nobody spoke a word about it.

Serena and Clemont began setting up the tents whilst Brock to put dinner on. Bonnie chose a small stump to sit on and catch her breath back, Pikachu entertaining her for the time being. Ash, on the other hand, set himself down grumpily and started sorting through his possessions. None of them dared to ask him to do anything more.

"I really would have liked to shop around for a bit in Viridian," Serena remarked as she pitched her tent.

"Perhaps next time," Clemont said back, unzipping his own tent and throwing himself into it gratefully.

"Hopefully," she said. "I'm sure that there would have been some great stores to browse for outfits. I could really do with some new accessories for my videos."

Ash narrowed his eyes at her words, emotions once more getting the best of him. How could she possibly think about shopping at a time like this? His fist unconsciously tightened around his sleeping bag. Misty was missing, held captive by a notorious criminal organisation, and they currently had no idea what their next move was going to be. Shopping and sightseeing were the _last_ things anybody should be thinking about.

_"Just because your friend is in a little trouble..."_

_"...think about something else for a change."_

_"...wanted to take a look around Viridian..."_

_"...new accessories for my videos."_

He snapped.

"_Shopping_? My best friend is in a life or death situation, and all you can think about is yourself!" Ash yelled, flying to his feet.

Everyone snapped their heads up at the harshness of his voice, Serena's eyes going wide.

"It was just a statement, Ash," Brock put in, defending her. "She didn't mean anything by it."

"Well she can keep her statements to herself," Ash muttered darkly.

Brock frowned, and from inside the tent Clemont held his breath. Things were not turning out the way they had hoped.

"I understand that you want to move on, but you need to stop taking your temper out on us," Brock told Ash sternly. He'd kept quiet at first, not wanting to worsen the situation, but clearly that particular tactic wasn't working out.

"We came here for a reason, Brock, and that wasn't to tour and break off from that reason at every chance we get," Ash seethed.

"Be that as it may, driving ourselves to exhaustion isn't the best thing right now, either. Keep your temper under control," Brock said back, crossing his arms.

Ash glared at him, and for a moment Bonnie thought that the boy was going to finally lose it. To her relief, after several seconds of staring each other down, Ash let up and turned his attention back to his backpack. He tightened his grip on the sleeping bag once more, yanking it out.

"Whatever. I'm going to sleep, don't bother waking me up for dinner," Ash told him at last.

He set his quarters up and tucked himself in, ignoring the stares being sent his way. Surprisingly, he went to sleep almost immediately. Once the sound of soft snores were heard, Brock made his way over to Serena. The girl was currently sitting by Clemont's tent, head down and absent-mindedly playing with dirt while Clemont whispered things to cheer her up.

"Serena..." Brock trailed off, seeing the hurt look in her eyes. He sighed, and Clemont looked up at him desperately. "Ash didn't mean it, you know that. He's just worried about Misty."

Clemont frowned. "That doesn't give him the right to target her."

"I know," Brock said, running a hand through his hair. "He's at his nerves end, we all are. Just give him a little space and wait until morning. I'm sure he'll come around."

* * *

Sure enough, true to Brock's predication, Ash had calmed down and cleared his head enough to realize his mistake.

Serena avoided him unless necessary, their only interaction being when she silently picked up their dishes from breakfast. Ash's gaze followed her guiltily the entire time, knowing that his actions the previous day had been the thing to hurt her so badly. He couldn't stand to see any of his friends in pain, least of all in pain because of _him_.

He knew that he'd have to apologize eventually. The only problem was that apologizing meant he'd have to actually face her. That and Clemont's furious glare automatically seemed to sense whenever he was near the girl.

"Hey, Serena," Ash began nervously, seeing Clemont already having noticed him.

She looked up from her actions, surprise flickering across her features before a more solemn one set in. He winced at this, knowing full well that it was his fault that she was feeling that way. Serena seemed to shrink back slightly and tightened her grip on the tent poles.

"Hi, Ash," she finally responded, the emptiness of her tone causing another pang of guilt to flow through him.

"I... I just wanted to say sorry," Ash said, choosing to look over at the tree line, all the while knowing that Clemont's gaze was following him the entire time.

Serena's eyes widened, having expecting him to say something eventually but definitely nowhere near before their group had reached Pallet Town. Was she hearing him correctly? "Can you please repeat that? I don't think I heard you right," she asked, confusion now filling her eyes.

Ash sighed, rubbing his neck sheepishly. He looked directly at her this time as he spoke, "I said that I was sorry. I acted like a real jerk yesterday, and you didn't deserve that. I didn't mean anything that I said. So I'm sorry."

...She must have been dreaming.

Serena stared at him for what seemed like forever, unaware of the three sets of eyes trained on the pair curiously. Ash began switching his weight from one foot the other impatiently, his ego already having been bruised from admitting his fault. Her not saying anything was just making it all the more worse.

"I get it if you're still mad, but I just wanted to let you know that I really am sorry," he continued, embarrassment adding to the blow once he realized that everyone was now watching him, "and guess what? Once we rescue Misty and everything goes back to normal, I'll take you back to Viridian personally."

His lopsided grin shattered Serena's resolve all at once, any feelings of dejection immediately flying out the window. How could she possibly stay mad at him? The full weight of his words hit her suddenly, and her cheeks flooded with colour. Personally? Ash Ketchum was going to bring her back to Viridian just to make her happy?

"Do you... Do you mean that, Ash?" Serena finally managed out, hope filling both her heart and voice.

Relief seemed to pass through him and he visibly relaxed, the hand nervously running through his hair now dropping to his side and a beam now brightening up the whole area. "Of course! Clemont and Bonnie wanted to stay, too, so I'm sure they'd love going back as well."

And just like that, the hope shattered as quickly as it had formed.

As Serena looked into his warm, chocolate brown eyes, her heart gave a painful, resounding pang. There was nothing present there other than that of innocence and friendship. She should have known that she had only been kidding herself. Ash Ketchum didn't even understand the concept of love. How on earth, when there was so much more at stake here than a simple crush, was he supposed to ever understand her feelings?

_To be continued..._

**Oh, and I know that the Kalos trio aren't in character. I also don't particularly care. They're more there for plot benefits and added show. A little drama, anyone? So, I'm twisting them to fit in with this story. It works. That's all that matters.**

**Don't forget to review what you thought! If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.**

**~Aureillia**


	8. - Impression & Illation -

**_By order of their review, I would like to thank: Guest, Cutiepiepo2, , JordanMax, Artemis173, schoolmouse33, Diamonds Shine, Aaml mania, Guest, QUEENSPELLER67, Typhlosion8, _MudkipAndSlyveon, HopelessRomantic, Guest, Guest, and CrazyGirlforMangoes for their continued support. :)**

_"Do not give up. The beginning is always the hardest part of your journey."_

**_Game Over_**

_Chapter Seven - Impression and Illation_

Just beyond the hill, small and cosy houses were set sparsely over the fields of rolling green, the familiar scent of still blooming flowers and honeysuckle invading their senses in a calming and nostalgic way. Right at the very end lay a large white building with endless pastures that surely took up more space than the town itself, and as the group drew closer vague wafts of what could only be Delia Ketchum's cooking occasionally blended in with the flora; But nothing excited Ash more at this very moment than the old and weathered wooden sign that confirmed 'Pallet Town' written in faded letters.

"Do you see that? We're here!" Ash cried out, turning to flash them a grin that, if were to grow any larger, Clemont swore would go against all laws of physics. Before anyone could stop him, Ash had pivoted back around and was already bolting down the hill at top speed. Pikachu, although clearly sharing the same sentiments as his Trainer, did not appreciate the sudden change in pace and was holding on to Ash's jacket for dear life.

From her place beside Brock, Serena directed a small, fond smile at Ash. This was without a doubt the happiest she'd ever seen him over something. She too was forcing down the bubble of excitement that continued to grow with every step towards their destination, the thought of exploring somewhere so quaint and so utterly _contrast_ to Kalos quickening her pace. Bonnie was currently staring at the beautiful scenery doe-eyed, finally glad to gaze upon something that wasn't a tree.

But that was before the realization that they had no idea where to go hit Clemont at full force.

"Wait, Ash, come back! We've never been here before!" he called out hopelessly, knowing that his efforts were no doubt in vain as the top of Ash's head disappeared below the hill.

Affectionate smile now long gone from Serena's face, the girl huffed and placed both hands on her hips. "Great. Now what?"

Brock chuckled, earning him the curious and somewhat annoyed stares from his companions. "I've been here several times in the past. Don't worry, I know where we're going. Besides," he continued, shielding his eyes from the rays of sun, "Pallet Town is tiny. You can see the Professor's Lab from up here."

An understanding expression crossed Serena's face, and Bonnie let out an excited squeal. The older three looked over to see her bouncing up and down, gleefully pointing towards the distance with a mega-watt smile on her face.

"Is that it, Brock?" Bonnie inquired, eyes shining. "That one, right over there!"

Clemont followed the direction Bonnie's finger was pointing, shielding his eyes with one hand as he squinted. "We should probably getting going then. It seems a fair way away."

Brock smiled, shaking his head slightly. "That's right, Bonnie. But despite what it looks like from up here, it won't take too long to reach. We'll be there in about ten minutes or so, although somebody should inform Mrs. Ketchum that Ash is back."

The group began walking again, relishing in the afternoon breeze that caressed their skin softly. After days in that forest not one of them hadn't been looking forward to reaching Pallet Town to just relax, and it was already paying off. Though with that said, a shower certainly wasn't out of the question. They walked in silence, Brock chuckling at his companion's awed reaction to their surroundings. While Pallet Town wasn't exactly the most popular or groomed place in all of Kanto, it did have its perks.

The quiet atmosphere and endless fields created a calm, serene atmosphere. Coupled with the simple houses which held the townsfolk, Pallet had a certain charm that nowhere else could ever compare to. Dirt tracks rather than the roads the Kalos natives were accustomed to went every which way, tattered wooden signs bent and moss-covered shoved into the ground at different points. The town didn't have many residents, but that only added to the homely feel it gave off.

Ash was nowhere to be seen, which was surprising considering the fact that he should have at least been visible at some point down the path. He hadn't been home, as the Ketchum residence appeared to be quiet and uneventful. Mr. Mime wasn't around, either, and the group of four made a point to avoid being seen. It wouldn't bode well for Delia or the barrier pokemon to catch sight of them; That would involve a lot of explanations that they just didn't have time for.

"Wow! Look at all of the pretty flowers!" Bonnie cried, immediately dashing off to get a closer look at the beautiful array ofmorning glory, foxglove, cornflower and the like.

Clemont's eyes bulged at the sight of his sister running off. "Bonnie! You can't just go r- Bonnie!" the Gym Leader cut his sentence short upon noticing that his younger sister wasn't listening to a word of it, choosing instead to follow after her. "Bonnie!"

Serena and Brock laughed at the scene, a lot more comfortable with this scenario than they would have been mere days ago. The two had formed an understanding of sorts, and both were thankful for it. While their relationship couldn't exactly be defined as 'friendship', Serena no longer had any negative feelings towards the older male. Brock knew her secret, and that was enough to make him safe in her eyes. She viewed him as a shield of sorts, although the protective brother role definitely wasn't the right word for it either.

Acquaintances, she supposed. Acquaintances with a mutual goal. No matter how you put it, both now held respect for the other, and that was all that mattered.

"So," Serena began, still faintly smiling at the two, "will there be any other girls there?"

Brock paled slightly, not at her reserved tone, but at the memory of her and May's tiny spat earlier during the week. It wouldn't do for them to start of on the wrong foot.

"A few have been at the Lab since before we set off for Kanto," he replied, keeping his voice as even as possible.

It wasn't a lie, really.

After all, Misty's sisters _had_ been there before they'd started off for Kanto. Serena didn't need to know that they'd left.

Serena nodded, completely oblivious to the slightly panicked breathing Brock was now doing. "You mentioned a girl named May the other day, right? Will she be there too?"

Albeit a little concerned over more competition regarding Ash, although she figured that if her own experience was anything to go by May wouldn't be there if she held any feelings for him, Serena was much more interested in the idea of having another girl around to talk to. Sure, the boys were great, and she adored Bonnie, but it would be a lie if she said that they weren't a little overbearing. Female company, someone her own age, was definitely something she had been looking forward to.

_Oh, shit._

He decided then and there that the best way around this was to avoid the question as much as possible. Or at least twist it into another topic, anyway.

Brock glanced at her knowingly before answering, "Yeah, May arrived along with the other girls. I've already mentioned that she was previously Ash's Hoenn companion along with her little brother, Max, but he isn't aware of the current circumstances. You must be glad to finally have another girl around," he added.

Serena scratched her head sheepishly, opening her mouth to quickly explain but was cut of by his chuckle.

"Don't worry about it," Brock told her, hoping to Arceus that he'd managed to distract her with the change of subject. "I'm not offended, and I doubt any of them would be either. Bonnie may be a girl, but it's different for you. You're a teenager. It must be a relief to find somebody else to talk to."

"I won't deny it. I enjoy all of your company, don't get me wrong. It'll just be nice to have somebody around that I can relate to," she said. "But back to May?"

_Damn it._

"I understand," Brock replied. "As for May... She looked up to Ash as an instructor of sorts. When she first began her journey she had no idea what she was doing. Ash acted as a teacher during our travels. Eventually, she left to continue on her own because she felt that Ash was too strong of an influence. May wanted to find her own style, and being around Ash for so long had made her battling technique reflect his own."

At least these were questions he could still tip-toe around.

She only nodded, relieved that he'd understood and spoken for her. "What is she like? Her and Misty must be close for her to know about the... the... you know." Serena asked, a little softer this time.

Brock turned back toward the path, wincing slightly but understanding her lack of words. "They've kept in touch a fair bit, enough for me to be confident in calling her Misty's closest girl friend. May is a Coordinator, though, so she and Misty couldn't be more different in regards to taste in hobbies. Oh, and she _loves_ food."

Really, he couldn't have put more of an emphasis on that.

Serena's face instantly brightened. "A Coordinator? That means that she loves fashion! And performing! I'm sure we'll get along great."

Brock had to use all of his self control not to break out into a rather loud cough.

Her words were so heartfelt that Brock almost believed them. _Almost_. He knew that Serena meant every one of them, but he was sure she'd be singing a different tune a soon as she figured out exactly who May was. If that videocall was any indication, Serena would be more inclined to hide atop a large cupboard to avoid getting her throat torn out by a scornful May.

May Maple was, by all means, a sweet and naive creature by nature. But when it came to arguments and revenge... Well, things could get ugly. Brock would know. He was present for all of the sibling rivalry and arguments that had constantly broken out between her and Max, not to mention the fact that May was like a sibling to Ash, as well. Those spats hadn't been pleasant either.

"I can't wait to meet her!" Serena remarked excitedly, and Brock's heart only sank further while his nerves rose higher. "Do you think she'd know any good shops around Kanto? Maybe when things cool over we'd be able to look for accessories together."

"We'll get to that when the time comes," he quickly said, narrowly avoiding her curious stare.

"O...kay?" she managed out, more than a little confused at his behaviour.

"Yeah..." Brock scratched the back of his neck nervously, pretending to look in front of them for any sign of the other three. "Any more questions?"

Confusion rising at his continuous change in moods, Serena wasn't sure what to say. On the one hand, she wanted to inquire as to his sudden one-eighty in behaviour, but on the other she knew better than to push it. Instead, she decided to just ask another question and hope for the best. "Um... You said that May and Misty were close, right? But how did May find out about Misty being... y'know, before you did?"

"Good question," Brock complimented, tapping his chin in thought. "The only reason I can think of is that May was already in Kanto and went to see either the Professor or Misty. That being said, I was busy running errands over the weeks leading up to the flights to Kalos. Misty and I didn't see each other at all, so I can only guess why she was here."

Serena processed his words, filling the blanks in her mind. "Would she have any reason to come to Kanto other than visit?"

"Well, May _is_ a Coordinator. It's possible that she came here to participate in Kanto's Contests, which would explain why Drew is here. I'm not entirely sure, though," Brock explained.

"That sounds like the most reasonable explanation," Serena agreed, thinking it over. "What does she look like?"

At that question, Brock froze. He'd thought that he'd managed to avoid that block in the road. While Serena seemed to have forgotten about their slight disagreement over the videophone, he still had no doubt that the two of them would have more than a couple of bones to pick with each other. He'd grown to like Serena over the past couple of days, and in no way wished to have her go in there defenceless, but it was better for them all if she walked in oblivious rather than raging.

That wouldn't be good for anyone.

May was more than likely already well prepared. Brock was almost positive that Drew and Gary had probably been subjected to more than a good earful, but she was also tactful. May Maple was not one to cause a scene. No, she would wait for an opportunity to present itself. But she was also unpredictable. As for Serena... Well, Brock didn't know her well enough to answer that. But if any of his past experiences with Ash's female companion's were to go by, she'd have just as much bite as her bark.

Despite his fixation with women, Brock held no desire to witness a cat fight. Especially a cat fight between to teenagers. One of which had become something of a sister, and the other someone he was currently trying to keep placated from Ash's obliviousness and determination.

"Brock?" Serena asked again, raising an eyebrow.

He shook his head in a minor attempt to get his thoughts straight, doing his best to avoid her curious gaze. "Uh..."

"Bonnie!" Clemont suddenly cried.

_Thankyouthankyouthankyou._

Brock and Serena turned their attention to where Clemont was desperately running after his younger sister, picking up loose stems and petals as he went.

"Don't fling those around! You can't just litter the local flora all over th-"

"We're here!" Bonnie hollered in delight, flipping the latch of the gate open and skipping inside. "Whoa, it's _huge_!

"Bonnie, get back here!" Clemont desperately called out, racing after her. "And stop throwing petals all over his driveway!"

Brock, seeing an escape route and making no hesitation to take it, took the chance to distract Serena. "Oh, would you look at that. We're here already! And what do you know, there's Ash!" he announced, already picking up his pace.

Before she could protest, Brock had already left in a slight jog through the gate and begun up the path to the Lab.

"Wait, Brock!" Serena yelled out in vain. She let out a sigh, having had enough of rushing to last her a lifetime. "You didn't answer my question!"

_"What is it with you people from Kanto?"_

_"...personal matter for _friends _only."_

_"...should have called him personally."_

_"...so why don't you just stay out of it?"_

_'I'm just thankful that she hasn't picked up on it before now,'_ he thought, ignoring her calls behind him.

* * *

"I thought I told you to keep out of this."

Leaf gasped, whirling around and grasping the back of the chair for support. Her eyes were wide in shock, heart racing as she stared at the person before her.

"Professor! I... I didn't hear you come in," she stumbled out, struggling to regain her composure.

Professor Oak gave her a look of disapproval, eyeing the many papers that now laid scattered across both the desk and floor.

Leaf followed his eyes, scrambling to pick up the array of sheets before he could get a proper look at what was written on them. "I have no idea what you're talking about. This," she held up a random sheet, "is purely research."

He raised a brow as he spoke, "You should know better than to lie to me, Leaf. I'm no fool."

"I'm doing my _job_," Leaf replied stubbornly. She picked up the last of her papers, turning her back to him and began stacking them back in an orderly fashion.

Professor Oak sighed. "Leaf... We both know that isn't the kind of research you should be doing."

She turned back around to face him, composure in place and face set in that passive expression that Gary hated so much. For a long time, Professor Oak had resented it as well. At this current point he had long learned to accept it, but that didn't mean that he didn't regret her becoming this way. Leaf was generally a bright person. However, she had many ways of shutting people out. It wasn't the façade he hated so much as the fact that she used it on them, used it on_ him_.

He had raised both her and Gary to the best of his abilities, and while he was sure that he hadn't gone wrong, the Professor would be the first to admit that he could have done a better job. He could have been there for them, could have been a better support to her. A better support to them both. He'd relied on the fact that, terrible as it may be, both Leaf and Gary had no parents. The Professor had hoped that it would bring them closer, bond them more. It had worked to a point, Gary being Leaf's closest friend even if the two would never admit it.

But that hadn't been enough, and he should have known that.

Growing up, Gary masked his emotions by venting them out on others. He became a bully, a cocky brat. Leaf, on the other hand, turned reclusive. She kept to herself, avoiding Gary at the best of times. But he couldn't blame Gary, either. Leaf was a girl, and she wasn't able to understand everything from Gary's perspective. That had been what drove them apart and forced them down conflicting paths.

By the time Gary grew up and changed his ways, Leaf had already learned to face her problems by keeping everyone else out. She'd grown up alone, and so had decided that all she needed was herself. Both himself and Gary had tried to shatter the walls Leaf built around herself to no avail. He couldn't blame her for it, though. In order to cope she kept herself safe. But that didn't mean the Professor didn't curse himself every time he was reminded that it was his fault.

"And what is it that I should be doing, Professor?" Leaf inquired calmly, body relaxed but eyes fierce. She was defensive, and he knew that she wouldn't let her guard down any time soon.

"Keeping out of things that don't concern you," he replied, keeping his voice in monotone.

Her eyes narrowed. "With all due respect, Professor, this is a matter that concerns me more than it does anybody else. They can say what they like, argue endlessly over who should be here and who shouldn't. But out of all of them I have the_ only_ right to look into this, and you know it."

Professor Oak crossed his arms. "Be that as it may, you've never made a point of taking the time to get to know Misty. Even Gary was surprised to hear that you two have spoken on more than one occasion. Please don't take this the wrong way, but you're not a people person, Leaf. The only thing you have a chance of gaining is suspicion."

"Everything I've done so far has been for a reason. Maybe so, but they don't have what I have. I've got something nobody else could possibly gain, and that's what matters the most," she defended.

"Leaf-"

"I know you don't approve of this, and believe me when I say that I hate going against your word. You may be like a father to me, Professor, but that is something that I cannot do," Leaf cut him off sternly, daring for a challenge.

"You know that she'll be safer if you stay hidden. I'm only worried about you, Leaf. I'm more than aware of your right to involve yourself, and if you really insist then I won't stop you," Professor Oak said. "But you'll both be in danger. I just don't understand why-

"You know perfectly well why!" Leaf shouted, clenching her fists in anger.

The two locked eyes, both refusing to look away. Leaf was breathing heavily, attempting to control both her desire to scream and rant and the guilt which now plagued her. Anger at herself for slipping, guilt at letting him be the one it happened on. The Professor remained calm, inwardly wincing at the fact that she'd lost her temper directly at him, because of him, but knew it would be better to just let it slide.

After a few moments of silence, Leaf took a deep breath and dropped her gaze to the floor. "If you were in my position, Professor, tell me that you would take your advice."

He kept his gaze locked on her for what seemed to be forever before replying, "I would do what is best for both you and her."

She lifted her eyes to meet his once more. "Which is to find out as much as I can."

"No, Leaf. Right now staying as far away from this as you can is what's best. If you get discovered to have knowledge about this what do you think will happen?" Professor Oak demanded.

"It won't," Leaf answered simply.

"You don't even know that those reports are accurate! For all you know there's nothing in there that will be of any use and you're just wasting your time."

Leaf clenched her fists tighter, determined to remain calm this time. "There's a chance that there might be. Even if its the smallest indication, I'll take it. You said that you would do what was best, and in my eyes that is to help in every way that I can. This means everything to me, Professor. I'm asking you to let me do what I think is right."

He remained silent, itching to say something, to convince her to stop once again, but forced himself not to. "Very well. I won't bring it up again, but I don't approve of this."

She snorted. "You've made that quite clear already."

Professor Oak, sighed, rubbing his temples. "Your father always was a stubborn man. I've always thought that she took aft-

"She can never know."

There was something there, something dangerous. Protective. Leaf's stance, her expression, the look in her eyes... He'd never seen her so determined before, so desperate. Professor Oak was well aware of just how much this meant to her. He knew that she would do whatever she could at all costs to keep her secret kept hidden well away, deep and far beneath the surface where nobody could possibly ever reach it. But even he was beginning to question just what the lengths of doing that involved.

A thought occurred to him. "And how do you expect to be a part of this search then, hmm? Do you think that they'll just let you go with them?" he asked, taking note in how her stance faltered. "You're a smart girl, Leaf, but as far as they're concerned you have nothing to do with Misty.

Leaf only grinned. "Then I guess that's just a chance I'll have to take."

When it came down to it, just how far would she go?

* * *

_"...furthermore, there has been no word as to the whereabouts of Misty Waterflower, the Gym Leader of Cerulean City, who was reported missing as of-"_

"Don't they have anything else to talk about?" Gary ground out in irritation, snatching the remote and smashing the 'off' button.

May swore she could hear a crack as he did, but decided better than to comment on it. Gary had been in even more of a foul mood than normal as of late, and as the days went by it got progressively worse. To top it off, he'd been disappearing randomly without a word to Mew knows where, and nobody had heard a word from Brock. Drew, between spending time with her and bugging Gary about updates, had taken to sitting in solitude for hours on end. That left her to either seek her pokemon out for comfort, or stare out the window mindlessly.

She'd just about had it with the suspense. If they had to wait for much longer somebody was going to go insane.

May glanced out the window for what seemed to be the millionth time that hour, her hopes once again dashed by the same, empty view that she swore could have been painted to it. Generally, she'd avoid speaking about anything relating to the break in, as they'd come to call it, as it only either angered or lowered the mood to a surprisingly depressing level. But May _had _to talk to someone, and small talk was something she'd never been good at.

"Have you heard anything yet?" May asked hopefully, inwardly praying to whatever Pokégod that was listening that Gary wouldn't take it in a bad direction. It was already a risky move considering that he'd already almost formed a finger-sized hole in the remote, but if she was anything, it was a risk-taker.

Gary's face scrunched up momentarily, and for a second May thought she was done for. But then it went back to frustrated as he ran a hand through his hair a replied, "Not a word. You'd think they'd at least send us a message or something,_ anything_ to get rid of this damn waiting around all the time."

Ah, so she wasn't the only one.

"I know what you mean," she told him quietly, holding back a sigh for his sake. "Even if we had to wait another two weeks, knowing when they were going to arrive would make all the difference in the world."

Gary snorted. "You can say that again."

The two fell into silence once again, May staring out at the sunny environment and he at the blank screen. She frowned. It was too nice a day for their situation, too bright and happy. It was like a joke, something made to taunt her. It wasn't enough that they hadn't progressed at all since last speaking to Brock, which was bad enough in itself as the Cerulean Sister's called at least once every two hours, but now even the weather had to mock them. Brock had better get here soon...

"Why don't you play with your pokémon or something? It might cheer you up," Gary suggested quietly, not taking his eyes off of the screen.

May smiled faintly, appreciating the gesture. "Pokémon pick up on their owner's feelings,_ Mr. __Pok_é_mon__ Professor. _I would, but I'd rather not make them feel as bad as the rest of us. It's hard enough convincing myself that it's going to be alright without telling them that."

Gary nodded, letting out a small laugh at the nickname. While they'd all been reclusive and shut off, the three of them had still become something of an anchor to the others. Little gestures such as cups of hot drink, food or small talks like what they were currently doing happened daily. Even if it may not have seemed like much, it meant the world to them.

And for a while, everything would be okay.

"Very inquisitive, Miss-"

_'Brrrrrrrr! Brrrrrrrr! Brrrrrrrr! Brrrrrrrr!'_

The sound of Gary's phone going off cut his sentence short, and he immediately forgot about their conversation and fumbled around for the device, taking a look at the screen and frantically scrambling out of the room. May watched Gary scurry away, this time not bothering to hold back her sigh. She turned her attention back towards the window, getting lost in thought and wondering why the universe seemed to be against them once more.

Because for a while everything would be okay, but then something like that would happen, and it would begin all over again.

* * *

_Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! _

Ash let out a low growl in annoyance, glaring at the doorbell as though it had personally offended him. Why wasn't anybody answering? Weren't they expecting them? He barely noticed Brock's sudden appearance beside him, not bothering to pay attention to the shouts behind them. Where _was_ everybody?

_Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding do-_

The door flung open mid-press, an irritated looking May standing in its place with her hands on her hips. "What's the big idea? You only have to press it once, you know!"

"Hey! What's the big idea? We've been walking for hours and-" Serena stopped mid-sentence, eyes widening in dreaded realization as the puzzle pieces clicked together and it dawned on her just who the person standing in front of them was.

May, on the other hand, looked positively lethal. Her normally peaceful eyes were on fire, a searing intensity aimed directly at the female who had frozen in her tracks. Mouth set in a tight line, she looked torn between lunging or slamming the door shut once more.

Nobody dared move a muscle for the fear of May's wrath being cast upon them, all anxiously holding their breaths in anticipation. All except for...

"Why are all of you standing there like a stunned magikarp?" Ash demanded, totally oblivious to the tension around him. He glanced back and forth at his friends in annoyance, wondering what could possibly be holding them up _now_.

And just like that, the switch had been flipped. Dark-May instantly morphed into her former self, smile pleasant as ever and eyes shining like the sun. A warm glow emitted from her, one that Bonnie was immediately drawn to, and her voice was light as a bell.

"It's nice to see you too, Ash," May said, her tone dripping in sarcasm. She rolled her eyes, before speaking, "I'm so glad that you've made it! Please, come inside. The others have are all waiting," she told them, relieved to finally be somewhat rid of the weighing feeling in her chest.

"'Bout time," Ash muttered, disappearing inside before anyone could say anything else.

May's smile dropped slightly, a small frown following Ash. It vanished almost as soon as it had come, though, and she went back to introducing herself to Clemont and Bonnie as they stepped inside after Ash. Only Brock and Serena noticed the apprehension behind her façade, the way her eyes narrowed slightly and posture became rigid when they were the only two left.

"Brock! It's so great to see you again," May told him warmly, enveloping her old friend in a tight embrace and allowing her lips to curl into the first real smile she'd had in days.

He laughed, returning the gesture with just as much enthusiasm. He really had missed her, and despite the circumstances it was nice to be able to catch up with everyone again. "You too, May. How's Max?"

"He's fine, started his Pokemon Journey. Right now I think he's visiting Mom and Dad, though," she explained, before turning to face the last of the group. "You must be Serena."

The honey-blonde swallowed thickly, not trusting herself with words at this point. She nodded her head, providing a shaky smile in an attempt to hide her nerves. May only smiled wider, although Serena couldn't tell if it was just for show or because she'd picked up on how rigid she was feeling.

"Well then, it's nice to meet you." May held out a hand, and Serena stared at it for a moment before tentatively clasping it in her own. Definitely for show, she thought, as May's hand clenched tighter than it should have. Normally, she wasn't one to just let go of her nerves like this, but something told her that getting on May's bad side wasn't something she wanted to experience.

Besides, she had something that Serena didn't; a place in their circle of trust.

May might have seemed pleased and completely content with the gesture, but there was a stiffness to her movements that told Brock otherwise. The words were forced, as was the smile. Shaking Serena's hand was only to be polite, but more for his own benefit if he guessed correctly. May didn't shake hands; not with girls, anyway. She glomped.

He certainly hadn't missed the small pat on the head and _real_ smile Bonnie had received, nor the proper, friendly handshake that was given to Clemont. The wince Serena gave once May let go of her hand and the way she rubbed it afterwards gave him all the information that he needed to know. And If the predatory glint in May's eyes was anything to go by, finding Misty wasn't going to be their only problem...

* * *

The catch ups didn't last long, Ash had made sure of that.

Once everyone was acquainted and settled in various areas of the lounge room Ash had demanded to know what was happening. He wanted details, he wanted answers, and he wanted them_ then_. It took a while to explain, in full detail of course, the events that had played out over the weeks, as Ash kept on interrupting with questions at every point the story took a turn.

One particular point, Brock noted with a small hint of amusement, was when Gary had remarked about Misty supposedly being in Kalos. This had prompted yet another burst from Ash, who had of course let the words go straight over his head, asking rather loudly (and idiotically, in Gary's opinion) when Misty had visited Kalos. That outburst ended rather quickly on a sour note when Gary sarcastically made a comment about the obvious fact that if Misty had of successfully arrived in Kalos when she was meant to they would not be having this conversation right now.

Ash had shut up after that.

By the end of it, he was deathly pale. He, along with the rest of his travelling companions, had no idea what to say. Serena knew that she wouldn't be able to console him. Not right now, anyway. She had learnt from her mistakes, and knew that it wouldn't be a good idea. Especially now that May was around. The brunette occasionally gave her small glares out the corner of her hard, sapphire eyes, intently watching Serena's own flicker to Ash constantly.

At one point a frown had come across her features as May looked back and forth between the two, and Serena dearly hoped that she hadn't picked up anything. May hadn't been able to say much of her own part without her voice cracking so Drew, whom Serena had come to discover was her boyfriend, had filled in the gaps for her. While she still had hard feelings towards Misty and her closest female friend, Serena felt her heart sink at both the sight and tale.

It was horrible, really. Nobody should have had to endure something like that. And they were all still so young, too.

Nobody said a word, either too wrapped up in their own emotions or worriedly glancing at Ash's reaction. Or lack thereof, more specifically. He yelled that it was still being looked into, that it could have been some nasty joke from a group of idiots or someone looking for attention. It was at that point that Tracy reached into his pocket and dug out the note which had come to be loathed by all, holding it up so that the initials _TR _stood out clear as day.

Ash had only gotten angrier, fists clenching tightly as he shouted about the possibility of a prank still being possible. Tracy had shaken his head sadly, explaining quietly about the test results of the analysation coming through a few days ago, confirming that there was, in fact, the DNA of a Team Rocket member.

Which one, they didn't know.

Because that was where their research had proved fruitless, records and statistics either blocked or unavailable. Even for somebody like Professor Oak. The most they were able to gather was that it belonged to somebody in Team Rocket, Misty's blood and the set of fingerprints that although were unable to be identified, and that was more than enough proof.

"But what in the name of Arceus would Team Rocket want with someone like Misty?" Ash whispered, breaking the heavy silence.

Gary sighed, running a hand through his hair as he spoke, "That's what we were hoping you'd be able to tell us."

"I haven't seen in her years, let alone spoken to her," Ash said, wincing at his own words. "I have no idea."

Drew groaned in frustration, having had enough of only receiving more questions than answers. "So you're absolutely positive that you don't know any motivation they may have? Nothing against her?"

Ash was about to speak when May asked, "What about revenge? She's been involved in more than a few disputes with where Team Rocket was concerned."

Brock was the one to shut down that idea. "That's highly unlikely. Misty's involvement was years ago. If they wanted to get back at her they would have done it sooner. It's not like they wouldn't have had the opportunity."

Ash nodded in agreement. "He's right. Besides, what about you? You've been involved as well. So has Max, and so has Brock. Heck, even Gary and Tracy have had more than their fair share of run-ins with Team Rocket, and none of them have been targeted."

May looked down, bopping her slightly, and Brock leaned over to rub her back soothingly.

Gary rolled his eyes, annoyed at the fact that they'd waited weeks for this and were not getting anywhere. "I agree with Brock. Anyway, if Team Rocket wanted to get back at Ash they'd have done it with someone he'd been in closer contact with." Ash visibly cringed. "Like he said, Misty and him haven't been in contact in years. The chance of her being kidnapped over something that occurred almost a decade ago is highly unlikely."

Drew threw his hands up in irritation, almost hitting a startled Tracy standing next to him. "What else could it possibly be, though? We've been through all of the possibilities, however little there are, and still can't manage to find anything that can help! If it isn't about revenge, then what the hell is it?"

It was then that Gary's gaze dropped to the floor, fingers fidgeting and right foot shuffling against the carpet; something that Ash, still irked by his last comment, did not miss.

"Whatever you're keeping from us," Ash began, venom dripping on every syllable, "spit it out."

All eyes in the room instantly fixed on Gary, who froze and went noticeably pale. May raised her brow, having suspected since the suspicious phone calls began coming through that he was hiding something, but never had the will to ask. It would have led nowhere, so she told herself that it was only her paranoia and imagination getting to her. But now that Ash mentioned it, pieces were beginning to click together as all of his strange behaviour over the days started playing through her mind.

His persistence when asking Drew about even minor details that they might have missed.

The random disappearances which he always excused as "things to be doing".

The sudden phone calls that, despite her best efforts, she was still not able to get even a slight clue about.

The way he conveniently zoned out when Tracy asked if Misty had been involved in anything that could tie her in with Team Rocket.

Gary gulped, knowing that he wasn't able to hide it from them any longer. The truth had to come out at some point, and now was a good a time as ever. "I..." he started, swallowing thickly and taking a deep breath. "I was hoping that it wouldn't come to this, but seeing as there obviously isn't any other explanation I suppose that it's the only thing that makes sense."

Ash expression hardened, not liking the idea of secrecy between Misty and the boy in front of him. "And what exactly do_ you_ have knowledge of about Misty that we don't? Every connection that she had to Team Rocket is through _me_."

"There is a motive, a very good one. The only one that Team Rocket could possibly have for targeting Misty, and it has absolutely nothing to do with revenge," Gary said slowly, shifting his gaze to look at Ash directly in the eye. "It's because this has nothing to do with Ash, either. Or her travels. It doesn't even have to do with her status as Gym Leader. Well, that helps, but it isn't the reason, and it's something that I've been trying to deny from the beginning..."

_To be continued..._

**Apologies for any PM's that have yet to be answered. I've recently taken up a sport that requires training everyday, so it's seriously been cutting into internet time. I'm only able to access it during school hours and mornings, but I'll get around to them all eventually.**

**As for GeekChicshipping... Will it be one-sided? Will Calem make an appearance? Will Serena return Clemont's feelings? Or is there another character that will fill that place instead? Plot twist~! Only time will tell... **


	9. - Dysfunction & Division -

By order of their review, I would like to thank: Typhlosion8, Cutiepieo2, schoolmouse33, JordanMax, Guest, Artemis173, Aaml mania, Anon, Guest, Guest, Guest, QUEENSPELLER67, Distant Storm, Diamonds Shine and Not So Artsy Fartsy for their continued support.

For some reason cid . neha's name isn't showing up so I'm writing it like this. I'd like to say a massive thank you to them for reviewing every chapter so far!

_"I think what makes people fascinating is conflict, it's drama, it's the human condition. Nobody wants to watch perfection."_

**Game Over**

_Chapter Eight – Dysfunction &amp; Division – _

Peter slipped through the broken window with practiced ease, using the moonlight as guidance to land on a clear bit of tile. The police had yet to clean anything up for the sake of forensic evidence, but it had already been over a week and they'd done nothing more than close off the area. Really, it was a rather sloppy job in his opinion.

Spiked ebony hair giving him a convenient cover in the darkness, Peter scanned his surroundings cautiously. As far as his knowledge went there had been no other appearances concerning Team Rocket, but one could never be too careful; Especially in the business he was in. Oak owed him big time. He pulled out a small torch which set off a beam of light straight in front him. Crimson eyes following it in caution, Peter figured that he had come into the kitchen.

Quite handy, considering this was the exact location where the girl had been attacked. The Cerulean Gym was a relatively large place, much larger than most Gym's due to the elaborate performances given by its residents. Despite the police's poor work of getting the place cleaned up, Peter couldn't help but be slightly relieved at the added leverage it gave him. It wouldn't do well at all if they'd scraped it all aside and just let Misty's sisters back in, as then not only would he have nothing to work with, but also three rather troublesome women to avoid.

The fact that Officer Jenny, albeit being a fierce and loyal worker, would have skipped over most important details was just a bonus.

He knew for a fact that the police hadn't bothered with looking into the case at all. Perhaps a few search parties here and there, but those and blocking off the area were just for show. It meant nothing. They had found nothing. The only reason they made such an ordeal over the matter was because Misty was a Gym leader. The Cerulean Sisters may have been placated with Oak's intel and Officer Jenny's robotic words, but he knew better, and he certainly wasn't going to let this chance go. After all, he'd never failed a case thus far.

Slipping a hand into his black jacket pocket, Peter pulled out a plastic ziplock bag and began to unfold it. The jacket was one of his favourites, given the high collar that went as far as to cover both sides of his face. It had saved his identity on more occasions than he could count on all fingers and toes combined. Shifting his head to the side for precaution, and out of habit, he moved the torch over the small kitchen to look for anything that may be of use.

After several moments of surveying the given area, Peter tucked bag into the front pocket of his white under shirt. He'd been almost positive that at least one minor clue would be easily spotted among the debris. He racked his brain for information, eyes popping as the memory of being told about the Pokemon who had been knocked out with some form of sleeping powder. Maybe there'd be something of use in there...

Slowly making his way out of the kitchen and using the light to avoid any askew or broken remains, Peter navigated his way through the Gym based on the memorised map Gary had sent him. Thankfully, he'd also had the good fortune of knowing that all of the pokemon had been removed for safety reasons, meaning that he was free to poke and prod around as he pleased without the threat of a wild water gun striking him without notice.

It didn't take long to find what he was looking for. If the oversized water tanks weren't enough information, the endless rows of seats for the audience were a dead giveaway. Peter once again raised his guard, defences high and sense alert. Moonlight gave the room a ghostly presence, shrouding his surroundings in a pale light and causing the tiles to glint softly.

This room was relatively untouched aside from the signs Officer Jenny and her fellow co-workers had placed here and there to label the spots where the sleeping substance was found. He quickly surveyed the ground for any giveaways, but after finding none he decided to get closer. Taking another step further, a glimmer of something golden caught his eye, and he did a double take. Squinting to get a better view, he shone the torch light over the tiles where the glow had come from.

Nothing.

Peter frowned and shook his head. Must be a trick of the light, he guessed, turning off the light once more. As soon as he did so, a faint sparkle could be seen where the light had previously shone. He walked over slowly, careful to avoid misplacing any signs, and narrowed his eyes inquisitively.

Sure enough, a shining substance could be made out. It was spread across only three tiles, and barely visible. The room darkened and it disappeared once more, and Peter looked out of the window to see that clouds had covered the moon. He bit his lip in thought; this definitely wasn't sleeping powder. And that was when it hit him.

_Retains a silver glow. Can only be seen when under the presence of pure light directly from the moon or sun. Contains special healing properties. Extremely rare._

If that was what he thought it was, Gary Oak had certainly dug himself a very large hole indeed.

* * *

"Ash, shut up and let him speak," Drew commanded, not once breaking eye contact with Gary.

Ash shot him a glare, but didn't protest further. Despite wanting to yell until the moomoos came home about Gary and how incompetent he was, the boy decided against it. For now.

Sighing, Gary spoke, "I'm sure that those who have been around the Lab have noticed Misty's visits increasing. We couldn't tell you earlier due to the fact that it was vital that it remained a secret, but considering the circumstances I'm left with no choice. She was here more than she was at the Gym, a-"

"What the hell are you trying to say, Gary?" Ash spat, eyes aflame and jaw in a tight line.

"Calm down, Ash," Brock said, albeit raising an eyebrow in curiosity. "Gary, are you suggesting what I think you are?"

Gary stared at Brock questioningly for a few moments before his eyes widened in realization. Mouth popping into an 'o' shape and face instantly pinking, he quickly shook his head and waved his hands desperately. "No! Mew, _no_. It's nothing like that. The relationship between Misty and I is strictly platonic."

Aside from a scoff from Tracy, which, thankfully, Ash didn't catch on to, the tension in the room dimmed instantly.

"I'm glad we've established that," Brock muttered, throwing a small glance at Tracy who held a slightly smug look.

"Very." Gary coughed. "But back to the point... A few months ago, Misty and I began working on a new type of potion for pokemon. Water pokemon, to be precise. I came across a few interesting findings and showed them to her to see if she'd be interested in running a couple of tests, and she agreed. Considering her status as a Water Type specialist that shouldn't be surprising."

He looked around the room expecting looks of understanding, and was puzzled when met with blank expressions.

"How does that tie in with Team Rocket?" May asked, having absolutely no idea where he was coming from.

"The formula we were working on is designed to enhance a water pokemon's ability in battle. It has rare properties that, if used correctly, are able to boost attacks and even lower the effects of being hit. It's dangerous, in some cases lethal, and if administered wrong can even cause a pokemon's nature to turn negative," Gary explained, hoping they'd catch on.

Slowly, Tracy spoke, "In other words, the formula has the ability to affect not only battle performance, but personality as well. And that is dangerous because it means they have the potential to turn on their Trainer."

Gary nodded his head. "Exactly. We were still in the testing stage, and the select pokemon we had already tried it out on only brought chaos. They turned vicious, attacking one another without hesitation or mercy. One almost sliced Misty's arm off at one point. Administering sleeping drafts have worked for now but they cant remain as a solution forever."

"That explains those injuries," Tracy muttered, remembering waking up one morning to find pokemon with unexplained wounds. "And in the hands of Team Rocket, such a formula could be more dangerous than it already is."

Gary shot him a sheepish look, scratching the back of his neck. "Precisely," he confirmed.

"Wait," May spoke up. "If it's so top secret that not even Brock or Tracy knew, how can you be sure that Team Rocket got hold of the information?"

"I'm not," Gary told her. "There was a break in a while ago by an unknown person. They escaped through a window before any of us could get there, but when we went through the documents only mine had been looked into. None of us thought anything of it at the time, but since the other 'break in' I've begun to suspect otherwise."

"And because there were no fingerprints or any other sort of evidence left behind, the only logical explanation is that somebody found out. Namely, Team Rocket," Tracy supplied, invoking a series of head nods around the room. "I need to go call Daisy."

There was no need for any other words. The motive that Gary had given was enough. Despite their willingness to deny it, there was no other theory that made sense. Team Rocket had somehow gotten wind of the experiment and taken things into their own hands. Through Misty, a water type specialist, they would have no trouble getting what they wanted. She'd be their best bet to gaining wealth and popularity, not to mention new recruits, throughout all of Kanto. Everything added up.

But that was when May, the last person anyone had expected to lose her cool, snapped.

"What the hell were you _thinking_, Gary?" she shouted, mouth set in a snarl and eyes on fire. "You were perfectly aware of the repercussions and yet you still let her do it!"

"That's why we kept it secret, May. Not even my own father knows, and he _owns_ this Lab. It's not even finished! I had no idea that anything like this would happen! If I did there's no way I ever would have made the offer," Gary defended.

"But you knew that it was dangerous!"

"And you knew that if anybody were to find out that she would be a target," Ash put in, his voice terrifyingly toneless. "How in the name of damned Arceus could you have been such _an idiot_? You put her in danger!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't know that-"

"Yeah, you didn't know. But that doesn't change the fact that it happened," Ash grated. "And now, Misty is suffering because of _you_. I don't care whether you had doubts about their motive, you should have said something sooner! Who knows what Team Rocket could be doing to her."

Gary took a step forward, his frustration heightening with every word that Ash spoke. Who was he to judge? Misty was more the capable of making her own decisions. She didn't need to be babied. Yes, he had offered for her to work with him, but it's not like Gary pushed her into anything. She'd done it out of her own free will and love for pokemon.

"Like you could have done anything if I had!" Gary yelled back, fists curled into balls and vexation beginning to well up in his chest. "What difference would it have made? You don't know where their hideout is. You have no clue how to find it. Your only chance at finding Misty is _me_, so-"

"Enough!" Brock roared, causing every single person in the room to flinch. Ash and Gary, although retaining their furious auras, froze immediately. "Ash, you need to calm down. You're not helping the situation at all."

Ash glared. "But it's his f-"

"I don't care whose fault it is," Brock snapped. "Yes, Gary may be partly to blame, but he isn't wrong. Misty chose to be a part of it, she knew what she was doing. There's nothing that you or any of us could have done."

The room washed over in a wave of silence. There was plenty Ash still wanted to say, and he'd be damned if he was going to let this go, but for now he had no further interest in making Brock mad. Brock didn't _get _mad. It took a lot to truly anger the older male, but Ash knew from experience that it wasn't something he was particularly keen on witnessing right now. Judging from Gary's lack of debate, neither was he.

"Brock is right, Ash," Serena spoke up gently, ignoring the look she got from May in response. "There isn't anything that you could have done. Instead of being with us you'd only have been waiting around at the Lab."

"But I still could have _been_ here. I could have been with her when it happened," Ash said lowly.

"And whose fault is that, huh? You're one to talk about responsibility. It's not like you ever put in any effort by even trying to contact Misty," Gary put in smugly, taking immense pleasure in the way Ash's face twisted back into a scowl. If he wasn't allowed to shout, he was certainly going to aim a few blows here and there. Looks like years of observing Leaf had paid off after all. It was just a matter of knowing where to aim; what nerves to strike and which ones hit the hardest.

Unfortunately, that was where any aforementioned sense went kaput.

"Shut up! I wasn't there for her, but where were you? You keep saying how I couldn't have done anything, but what about you, huh?" Ash retaliated, his resolve disappearing instantly.

"Stop acting like you're the only one that Misty meant anything to," Gary bit back. "You're not the only one who has lost a friend here, Ash. Trying considering that."

Ash only scoffed, but his anger dimmed. "You couldn't possibly understand how I feel."

Gary lowered his gaze to the floor. "Maybe you aren't the only one who feels that way. I understand more than you think," he whispered, just loud enough for them to hear, and thus the wave of silence washed over once more.

* * *

"What is it?" Lance asked, holding the phone up to his ear.

_"Oak spilled,"_ the voice on the other end answered. _"Ketchum arrived and Oak let it all slip."_

Lance grinned. This was perfect. "Excellent."

_"Lance,"_ the voice began in a questioning tone, _"isn't it a bad thing if they are all aware? What if they decide to come after us?"_

He only laughed. "Even better. The little red-head won't dare go against my word now. Not if she doesn't want her precious friends in danger. Having them all in the one place is extremely convenient, and if they're stupid enough to follow any leads..."

Lance could almost hear them grinning. _"We'll take them out."_

"Precisely," he confirmed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go pay a little visit to our guest." He hung up before receiving a reply, already spinning on his boots and marching towards the room with a large, sinister grin of his own.

It didn't take long to reach where they were keeping her. After all, it had to be in a convenient location; where else better than the center of the building? All of their science equipment was located there. It was more than simple enough to get the Waterflower brat to cooperate with idle threats, and holding her in with where she needed to work was just an added bonus. Of course, she would need to be moved to the actual cells once progress had begun, but that could wait until later.

Lance could almost taste his victory.

He soon arrived at the sliding doors, the Grunt standing guard giving him a respectful nod before proceeding to press a few numbers on a keypad. The doors instantly opened with a _whoosh,_ and Lance entered the room just as they closed behind him. On the table, Misty had long since awoken from previously being knocked out with sleeping gas and was currently staring him down as he approached her once again.

A faint smile made its way across his face. "I see you've woken up," Lance began. "How did you enjoy your little nap?"

Misty only continued to glare at him. If anything, his words had only intensified her loathing.

"Come now, don't be like that." Lance gave a mock pout, clutching his chest in fake hurt.

She still refused to answer, and Lance took it as her own form of resistance. It was almost enough to make him laugh. Pitiful; they had taken away all movement so they only thing left for her to do was maintain her pride, a rather common block in the road. It was quite annoying, in his opinion, as it only wasted good time. After all, they never held out for long.

Ever.

He sighed. So typical, and yet Lance couldn't help but feel a small bubble of accomplishment at being one step closer to his goal. "You're going to finish that formula for me."

That diminished her initial reaction.

Her mouth opened in shock, eyes wide and body trembling slightly in its restraints. "W-what?"

Ah, so it was back to stuttering. Good. He had caught her off guard. "Oh, you're perfectly aware of what I'm talking about, Miss Waterflower. The little project that you were working on with that Oak boy. You're going to finish it right here."

Misty regained her composure, blank stare now set in place. But she was still frazzled, and Lance knew exactly how to play his cards. "I don-"

"There's no point in denying it, Miss Waterflower. Really, I had thought we'd gotten past this by now," Lance admonished, dramatically holding a hand to his head.

Misty seemed to get the picture, as her expression morphed into a stubborn frown. "How do you even know about the formula? And what makes you so sure that I'll help you? I don't even have the right equipment."

Lance spun around, cape billowing out behind him, this time walking towards a panel in the wall behind her. He punched in a code, and a loud click was heard as the walls began to shift upwards. How he wished he could have seen her face as rows of technological machinery was revealed little by little, large computer screens that would normally only be seen by some wide scale corporation such as the Mossdeep Space Centre in Hoenn possessed unveiled bit by bit.

"I have my ways of gaining information," he answered, not bothering to elaborate any further. "And believe me when I say that I can be quite persuasive."

This prompted a scoff, and from his position he could see her struggling against the ties.

"Do you have any idea how rich your formula is going to make me?" Lance questioned, moving across the room slowly to run a hand across the surface of the equipment. "Of course, I'll need to modify it so that other pokemon aside from water types can use it. But you'll do the hard work. From there, it's only a matter of adjustment."

Misty held her head up as high as she could manage, watching as he eyed the newly revealed technology with something akin to pride. Disgusting. "I will _not_ help you."

"Once that is complete, everybody in Kanto will respect me once more," he continued, ignoring her words. "It will be a breakthrough for pokemon science! A new era of battles. This will be even bigger than Mega Evolution, and _I'm_ going to be the one achieving it."

Misty dropped her head once more, resisting the urge to scream about what an absolute idiot he was being. Coward. A Pokemon Master stooping so low, who was going to respect him after that? Then again, that part would never be found out, she supposed. But despite the loose ends, this was disgraceful. She racked her brain, desperately searching for excuses. _Anything_ that would delay this. Even if only a little.

"So maybe you've got the technology, but you don't possess the necessary elements to create the formula," Misty tried.

Lance turned to face her, and she almost shuddered under his predatory gaze. "That won't be a problem. We've been trying to create this for months, but without your help it's all been for naught. Ingredients aren't an issue."

"What about pokemon?" Misty asked quickly, moving her head to look at him again. "I can't do anything if I'm not able to test it. And if I'm stuck in here that just isn't possible."

"I am going to advise you to refrain from making any further excuses, my dear," Lance replied lowly. "All testing will be done by my own people. We have more than enough at our disposal. Pokemon, too."

Misty gave a disgusted noise. "You can't just talk about pokemon like they're tools that you can do away with as you please! Does your title really mean nothing to you?"

Lance shrugged. "On the contrary, Miss Waterflower, my title allows me to do whatever I so wish without any questions. I can hardly live up to the name without mastering any pokemon. If force is needed, then so be it."

She snapped. "You can't force me to do anything! I don't care what you say. I will not help you. Perhaps you've fallen this far, but there's no chance in hell that I am going to join you."

Lance tilted his head, walking towards her once again. He stopped right next to the table, leaning over it as he spoke, "Pretty words. What a pity they are all empty. I'm afraid that you don't have a choice in this matter. There's more than one way to skin a meowth."

Another despicable practice.

Misty only turned her head to face the opposite way, refusing to look at him any longer than necessary. Lance, however, frowned. He reached out and grabbed her by the chin, forcing her to face him. "Just how important are you friends to you, Miss Waterflower?"

Her eyes widened. No! Even he wouldn't go _that_ far... Would he? "You can't do that! My friends and my sisters are all that I have left!"

Big mistake. Misty instantly regretting cracking under the pressure as he leaned in even closer, the confirmation that he'd hit just the right nerve shown by her yelling. She could feel his breath in her ear, and once again forced herself to suppress the urge to squirm away as he whispered,

"Then you'll finish it, won't you?"

* * *

Leaf stood with her arms crossed, eyes trained on Gary as he did his best to avoid her gaze. Her and Professor Oak had walked in on a rather tense, but judging by the rest of the group, rather opportune moment while Gary muttered out that last sentence and nobody had known how to respond.

From what she'd gathered, Ash had started it. That didn't mean she wasn't ticked at Gary, though, being the smartass that he was, for encouraging him. Brock had filled both her and the Professor in while Gary stood to the side awkwardly, guilt and irritation practically radiating from him. Ash had almost gone off again, eager to get his own two cents in about how Gary's idiocy had ruined everything, so Brock had needed to take the three of them out of the room to explain while the others calmed Ash down.

He and the Professor had left a while ago, leaving just the two of them alone in the same room she'd been frequenting over the past week or so.

"You're an idiot, you know that right?" Leaf said, breaking the silence between them.

He didn't look at her, and she felt some of her anger ebb away. Upon finding out that he had kept this little secret from her, especially under such dire circumstances, it had taken all of Leaf's willpower not to lose it then and there. But that wasn't who she had trained herself to be, and she refused to make the situation worse by taking it the way Ash was. Really, the guy needed to take a chill pill. Or a few dozen.

That wasn't to say she was thrilled, though. In all truth, Leaf wanted nothing more than to slam her fist into Gary's face for keeping it hidden for this long. That wouldn't help, however, and right now she needed his cooperation. His guilt could prove useful.

"I'm not going to yell at you, Gary," she told him, leaning over to grab a stack of papers.

Gary finally looked up at her, eyebrow raised an surprise written all over his face. "Then what _do_ you want?"

She raised her gaze to meet his. "Who said I wanted something? There's nobody keeping you here."

And so, they were once again back to square one.

"You're not angry at being kept in the dark?"

Leaf paused momentarily, and for a second Gary thought that he'd finally managed to get a reaction. "It's none of my business. There's no reason to be," she stated.

"But-"

"Don't use me as vessel for letting out everything that you couldn't with Ash, Gary," Leaf cut off.

How was she able to figure him out so easily?

He wasn't able to figure _her_ out, and was torn between staying out his pride's sake and going back out there to deal with Ash. Currently, he'd rather take his chances with Ash than Leaf. Mew only knew that she'd kick his ass to Hoenn and back whether it be physically or verbally. Besides, he was in no mood to set her off. Right now he needed someone who wasn't going to judge him or look at him like everyone else had.

They may not have said it, but words weren't needed to convey the blame.

And Leaf was right by saying that it wasn't fair to take it out on her. Because really, it wasn't her fault.

"Come to think of it, what _have_ you been up to over these past few days?" Gary asked, eyeing the pages in her hands. "You've been in here a lot, you know."

Leaf played with the edges of the stack. Out of habit, not unease, she told herself. She was well aware that he already had a pretty solid idea of what she'd been doing, but that didn't mean she was going to tell him that. After all, Gary only knew the pretense of her research, not the actual meaning or detail that went into it. That just made it easier to get what she wanted from him.

"If you already know, then why bother asking?" Leaf retaliated, voice completely level and calm.

Gary tensed, and she knew that she currently had the upper hand. Such were the perks of knowing how to deal with him. Leaf was never one to give a straight answer, of course, and twisting that in with getting to the point right away was always a habit he'd found difficult to overcome. Not to say he didn't try, though, and years of experience had made him somewhat better.

Even so, Gary Oak still remained unable to grasp the upper hand. Not for very long, anyway.

"Conversation?" he tried, which only earned another blank stare. "I want to hear it from you."

She gave a small laugh, and Gary awarded himself a small victory at achieving that feat. "Well, we both know that's a lie," Leaf replied. "As to the second part, you should know by now that telling people what they want to hear has never been my forté."

He had to give her that one. "Maybe not," Gary admitted. "But still, Gramps is worried about you."

"And I'm worried about Misty," she said back. "Your grandpa and I have spoken, Gary. Many times. He's agreed to let it rest, and so should you."

It was his turn to laugh. "Well, Leafy, you should know by now that I've never been good at following instructions. Since when do I stick to agenda?"

"If you want to know so bad, maybe you can help." There it was.

Gary cursed internally, berating himself for having walked right into her trap. She'd seen an opportunity and snagged it, using his personality against him. Then again, it was nice having some familiarity around. Who knew? Maybe what she needed help with wouldn't be such a big deal.

"With?"

But this was Leaf he was talking about, and he really should have known better than to have believed that.

"I want your research," Leaf answered simply.

"My research?" he repeated, looking at her skeptically.

She nodded. "The one you were working on with Misty. Not the results or details or anything," Leaf added quickly. "Just the components. There's a few things I need to look at."

Now this was interesting.

Why was Leaf suddenly curious about their project? But more to the point, why did she need an ingredients list rather than their records?

"I don't know if that's such a good idea, Leaf," Gary replied, moving away from the wall. "After all, you never specified _what_ you were looking at. Why should I give my data to you?"

Her eyes closed in on him, face now passive and serious. "Because, despite whatever you've got against handing it over, you're more than aware that I'm your best bet at finding a lead."

She had him there.

But he'd already gone over the findings a million and one times, each try more pointless than the last. There was nothing of use at all. What made her so sure that she could find something he couldn't? Although, this _was_ Leaf Green. Despite every fiber of his being screaming against it, the instinctual conflict of not letting her get her away so easily kicking in, Gary just nodded his head.

"I don't know what you think you're going to find on there, but I'm telling you that it's not worth it," Gary told her. In other words, 'Fine, but I'll be the one laughing when you have nothing to show for it.'

Leaf allowed a faint smile to grace her lips. "You never know until you try. The documents are in your private folder, I presume?"

Gary rolled his eyes. "It's not like I need to give you permission to go in there. You'll get the passcode somehow. If you really wanted to, you would have done what you needed to by now without telling me."

She grinned. "Now, Gare-bear, don't cast aside my respect for privacy so easily."

This only prompted him to snort. "Right. Like you've ever held privacy in high regards. Do what you want, Leaf, you're just wasting your time. I'm going to go back out there and see if they've had any bright ideas."

Leaf only nodded, forcing down a smug smirk. It wasn't like he was wrong about the privacy thing, and honestly, she _could_ have accessed his files at any time she so pleased.

Really, who used '_SmellYaLater_' as their password?

At least he'd bothered using capitals.

* * *

Things had relaxed quite a bit since Ash and Gary's spiff. In the midst of glaring daggers at each other, the brown haired girl, who they'd been informed was Leaf, and the Professor had chosen the perfect time to interrupt. Gary had been out of the room for some time now, and since Brock had returned without him, it was safe to say that whatever conversation he was having with Leaf seemed to be working.

While Gary was off cooling his jets, Ash had jumped immediately into doing whatever he could to make up for lost time. Having had a slightly more prolonged introduction to those who had yet to meet the Kalos trio, most were settling in quite comfortably. Brock's return had prompted everything to get moving again, however, which led to the actions of the group now.

Ash, Brock, Tracy, and Drew were currently taking up residence on the couches, several sheets of paper splayed out on the table in front of them. A detailed plan of everything that they knew and events that had passed was being carefully written, several ideas and locations already brainstormed. Clemont had wasted no time in bombarding Professor Oak with questions, Serena had picked up on a few words to do with inventions and gadgets here and there, and Drew had remarked something along the lines of, "Great, another Lab Rat. Joy."

At that, May had spoken up about somebody called Max, who Serena recalled as her younger brother. According to May, Max adored anything to do with electronics, which prompted a discussion between herself and Bonnie over the many 'joys' of having technology-obsessed brothers.

Serena, on the other hand, couldn't find it in her to join any of them. She was more than hesitant to strike up a conversation with May, and while reserved about where her bonding with Bonnie would position her, she couldn't help but be slightly grateful to the younger girl for providing a distraction. Sitting with Ash and the other boys, while not uncomfortable, would have been completely foreign.

Serena knew that she didn't belong over there. She didn't know Misty. She had nothing to offer to their musings and would only get in the way. She'd contemplated pulling out a pokémon a few times but decided against it. It was strange, she thought, at how everybody here seemed to naturally fall into place and interact with each other as though they'd all been friends for years.

Normally, she'd have no problem with new people. This, however, was an entirely different situation.

She watched the small groups for a few minutes longer, observing how different and yet alike they all were. After more contemplation, she decided to go for a walk. That way she would be free to bring out Braxien without worrying about setting something on fire. Nobody would notice her disappearance anyway, and she wouldn't take long. An hour or so, maybe?

The others would be busy for at least that amount of time.

Rising to her feet slowly and quietly, Serena made her way out of the room. She located the front door with ease, slipping through and shutting it without a sound. She walked down the long, narrow driveway of the Lab, continuing until she finally reached the end. Just beyond the dirt track was a rather large field, certainly a decent size for Braxien, and she ran until finding an area filled with wildflowers.

Serena reached into her bag, prodding around for the object of interest until she felt her fingers graze the smooth, polished surface. She grinned, clasping a hand around the red and white sphere before pulling it out and crying, "Come on out, Braxien !"

* * *

The familiar red beam shot across the field a few meters away, her beloved pokemon appearing mere seconds afterwards. It trilled, obviously excited to finally be out of its container once more, and for the first time in days, Serena felt completely at ease. The fox pokémon caught one glimpse of her and its expression dulled, and Serena cursed for not remembering about pokemon being able to pick up on their Trainer's emotions. Fennekin let out a string of sounds, tilting its head to the side in the most adorable manner.

Serena sighed, gazing at her first pokémon softly. "I suppose there isn't any hiding from you, is there?" Braxien shook its head vigorously, and Serena took a seat on the surprisingly fluffy-like grass in front of it. "I just feel out of place, I guess."

The fire-type stared at her, not understanding.

"Everyone else seems to fit in so easily. Clemont has the Professor, the other boys just click, and even Bonnie is able to get along with May! I know that Gary and Ash have their differences, but I'm sure that if they saw each other again under difference circumstances they wouldn't have acted that way," Serena rushed out. "I'm selfish. Maybe that's why I can't seem to be a part of their circle. Clemont and Bonnie followed for Ash, but I followed in the hopes that it would be beneficial for me."

"You shouldn't feel that way, you know."

The voice was deep and masculine, and Serena initially jumped backwards slightly, curling away from fennekin in shock. Once coming to her senses and remembering that ordinary pokémondidn't have the ability to speak, she looked around, startled, and was even more surprised to find Brock standing behind her. An understanding smile on his face, Brock stepped closer and took a seat next to her. He eyed her fennekin curiously, seemingly put more at ease as it released a small yip and wagged its tail.

Why did he always choose to pop up at the most inconvenient times?

"I think we should talk."

* * *

"What about that Silph Co. place? That used to be a front for Team Rocket," Ash suggested, and Drew looked at him skeptically.

"I thought we were talking about Gym's, Ash," Drew pointed out, gesturing to the list of possible Gym's that may be of assistance.

Tracy shook his head. "Silph Co. _is_ a Gym. Or was, anyway."

Drew looked up in confusion. "Wait. Is it a company or a Gym?"

Gary sighed. "Ash, you're confusing the poor guy. It's _undercover_ as the Viridian Gym."

"So it's not a Gym?" Drew asked again.

Ash replied, "No. Wait, yes! Well, it's a company _in_ a Gym." Gary nodded in confirmation.

Drew rubbed his temples. "You've lost me. Is it a Gym or not?"

The two were about to reply when the kitchen door suddenly burst open, revealing a flustered Leaf. Clutched tightly in her hands were several sheets of paper, their previous flatness now creased by her grip. There was a grin on her face unlike Gary had ever seen, and he was even a little terrified to admit the excited vibe she was giving off.

"What's with you?" Gary asked, both curious and nervous. Leaf never displayed this much emotion_. Ever_.

Especially not in a room filled with strangers.

"I've found something!" Leaf announced, sticking out the sheets with both hands at arm's length. "It could be a vital clue for where Misty is."

"No way," he muttered, hardly able to believe it.

Oh, he _so_ knew that it had been a bad decision to tell her that it was a waste of time. Honestly, he should have known he'd be eating his words in less than forty minutes into it. At least now Gary knew that half of her eagerness was because she could shove it in his face, and most likely be told to shove his doubts about her ability somewhere else that was less pleasant.

Ash brightened almost instantly. "Really? You mean we have a lead?" Leaf nodded her head with more force than necessary, and his face broke into an ear-splitting grin. "Great!"

Gary cast a glance at Ash before turning back to Leaf. "Well, you win. Big surprise. What did you find?" Although he didn't show it, Gary was also pretty thrilled at the prospect of finally having something to look into. Something solid. And knowing Leaf, whatever she had found would definitely be concrete and worth the effort.

Leaf stepped further into the room, pulling the papers back in to mull over them once more. "Well, it's a little far-fetched, but if I'm correct-"

"Hold on," Tracy interrupted, looking around the room. "Brock still isn't back. Neither is Serena. Shouldn't we wait for them?"

Ash tilted his head, surveying the room. "They're gone? When did that happen?"

Gary swore that it took all of his willpower not to grab the nearest object at knock him over the head. "Around the time you were still contemplating the chances of Misty being used to test whether pokémon hypnosis was a possibility and she was being kept captive within the confines of a roof garden," he managed out, doing his utmost best to keep the sardonic tone that that wanted so badly to leak out at bay.

For once, Ash picked up on the sarcasm. "What? It's happened before."

"If what Brock told me was correct, then that wasn't Team Rocket," Gary corrected. "But speaking of, I think it'll be fine if we just hear Leaf out. Brock and Serena can catch up later."

Ash nodded his head in agreement, more than a little impatient to hear any possible information that might help them in their search. Tracy, on the other hand, only disagreed further, "I really think that we should wait. They shouldn't be too much longer, and Brock might know more than we will."

"What difference does it make?" Gary challenged, irritation once again seeping into his voice. He liked Tracy, really. He was a good friend and fellow researcher at times, but right now he was preventing them proceeding.

"I agree with Gary," Ash put in. "Whatever it is, we can just repeat it later."

May sighed, leaning back in her chair as another dispute broke out amongst the group. If they spent as much time putting facts together as they did arguing, she was sure a lot more could have been accomplished by now. Personal feelings aside, the group normally got along well. But the tension and stress were getting in the way, and each off their own emotions had been setting them back from the beginning. Honestly, they could be so impatient at times. On the other hand…

Where the hell was Brock?

* * *

"I can't leave for ten minutes without somebody turning this into a boxing match!" Brock yelled, glaring in the direction of Ash and Gary. They were supposed to be on the same side. How the name of Mew did they end up sparring with _each other_?

"It wasn't our-"

"Tracy was being responsible, you two were being impatient," Brock snapped, cutting them off effectively.

"Well, you _were _taking your sweet time," Ash pointed out, rubbing his newly bruised arm. "We were waiting forever!"

Brock stared at him. He had been gone for fifteen minutes. _Fifteen_. Serena had confessed her insecurities and doubts, and he had told her to give it some time. Once they began travelling again or found something to keep the others placated it wouldn't nearly be as bad. And what did the peaceful, calm pair come back to? A blur of clothes and limbs as the couch was used as a fighting ring.

"Now, Leaf," Brock began, slowly turning to the girl, "please feel free to ignore these two _idiots _and continue with what you were saying."

"Right. Well, before I was interrupted by a certain _someone_," Leaf started, pausing to glare at Gary. She _was_ worried about him, but there was no way she'd ever admit that. "I was going through recent data regarding the quantities of components present in Gary and Misty's research, and came across data that showed high masses of it being mined in certain areas."

Ash blinked.

"She means that certain ingredients we used in the formula have been taken in larger than normal amounts, dumbass," Gary remarked, noticing his expression.

"Oh!" Ash said, the information sinking in. "But wait, what does that have to do with Team Rocket?"

Leaf flipped the page, scanning its contents. "The ones taken aren't common. Only those with authorized personnel or with a really good reason would have access to them. Meaning-"

"Meaning that Team Rocket are attempting to recreate and finish the formula for themselves," Gary finished, earning a nod from Leaf. "Which components are they?"

She flipped through the sheets again until coming across a table. "Revival Herb and Energy Root. There's no way that any normal citizen would be able to get their hands on these, especially such a large amount."

Brock nodded in agreement. "She's right. This could be a really good clue."

Drew spoke up, "So this means that Misty's helping them create it, right? That's why they want her?"

Ash sent a scowl his way. "There's no way Misty'd ever help scum like Team Rocket!"

Brock sent him a pitiful look. "It's not like she may have a choice, Ash."

Tracy frowned, holding out his hand for the sheets and Leaf passed them over. He flipped through them quickly, going through the contents as fast as possible. "There aren't any sites. As great as all of this insight is, we still have no way of pinpointing an exact location."

Quizzical expressions all turned towards Leaf, who shrugged in response. "All of that was either confidential, off limits or had no data. Not even I was able to bypass any systems. They're being careful, which means that we need to be as well. They might be on to us."

Gary cleared his throat, and all attention snapped back to him. "Actually, there is one way. I have a close friend who is a private investigator. He owes me a few favors, so I've already had him looking into things for a couple of days now."

"Are you _kidding_ me? It's already your fault that Misty is in this mess, and now you go and blab to some… some _outsider _without consulting the rest of us?" Ash demanded.

May rubbed her head. Was one peaceful after oon too much to ask for?

_To be continued..._

**Notes:**

**This update came a whole two weeks early! It's not a spooky fic, but I figured that it's a good a present as any. Happy Halloween!**

**While the Kalos trio won't be getting a whole lot of screentime, Serena's character is one that I wish to explore. Her situation is different from the rest of the group, and I feel that if all the characters were to meet she wouldn't have a solid place among them. Thus, her main focus will be based around that.**

**The OC, Peter, belongs to and will only be getting one more scene. I don't do OC's. This was a one-off thing, as normally I'd use a minor character from the anime/games. Generally, stories involving them generally don't interest me. Everyone has their own preferences. OC's just aren't my thing. If you want a further explanation or have any questions about the story shoot a PM my way. **


End file.
